                         The
                     Standard
A Reformed           Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                     Breakfast before Sunday worship service
                           in Myanmar (Galilee Church)
                          See "Go Ye Into All the World" -- p. 88

Vol. 74, No. 4
November 15, 1997


                                                                     Meditation                                                                Herman Hoeksema



                                                                            A Damnable Inference
                    Contents:
Meditation -- Herman Hoeksema
       A Damnable Inference ............74

Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma                                       For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory;
       The Scandal and Silence .......77
                                                                  why yet am I also judged as a sinner?  And not rather, (as we be slanderously
Editorially Speaking .........................79                  reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come?
Letters ...............................................80         whose damnation is just.
                                                                                                                                                                  Romans 3:7, 8
Address at Annual RFPA Meeting --
       Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
       The RFPA and
Religious Stew (2) ..........................80

In His Fear --
       Rev. Arie denHartog                                        In the immediate context, the of the sinner, that he shall not ap-
                                                                        apostle removes from the sin-                        pear in the judgment, that God has
                                                                        ner a last possibility of excuse.                    no right to execute judgment upon
                                                                  This is the purpose of the preced-                         him, must be taken out of the hand
       The Remnant Shall Be Saved 83                              ing four or five verses.  The apostle                      of the sinner, who always lies about
Guest Article --                                                   presently intends to elaborate upon                        God.    He  must  stop  lying  about
       Rev. Douglas J. Kuiper                                     the positive message of the gospel.                        God.
       Language and Salvation ........86                          This message is that man is justi-                                  Now in the context the apostle
                                                                  fied by faith through the righteous-                       answers  a  possible  objector,  who
Go Ye Into All the World --
       Mrs. Jeanette Kortering                                    ness  which  is  of  God  and  which                       lies about God to excuse himself.
       Our Work in Myanmar .............88                        He realized in Christ.  If the sinner                               Let  me  use  an  illustration.   A
                                                                  is to receive the positive message                         judge passes sentence upon his own
Apples of Gold ..................................92               of the gospel, he must have noth-                          son.  That son has committed mur-
Decency and Order --                                               ing  left  that  is of  himself.    There                  der.  He is tried in that father's own
       Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                    must be no possibility left for him                        court.  That judge expresses the ver-
       The Administration of the                                  to be justified by works.                                  dict of the death sentence upon that
Lord's Supper ..................................93                       Not only those works which we                       son.  By that verdict of that judge,
News From Our Churches --                                          might call the works of the law, but                       the sentence becomes the occasion
       Mr. Benjamin Wigger ................95                     also  our  religion,  our  piety,  our                     of  commending  the  righteousness
                                                                  Christianity  must  be  taken  away.                       and integrity of the judge.  The son,
                                                                  They are no good as a basis of righ-                       hearing that the judge is praised for
                                                                  teousness.  But also every excuse                          his  righteousness  and  integrity,
                                                                                                                             turns  around  and  says,  "Because
                                                                                                                             my sin commends your righteous-
                                                                                                                             ness,  you  cannot  condemn  me  to
                                                                  Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-                         death."    But  the  judge  answers,
                                                                  tor of the Standard Bearer.


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74/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


"How shall I judge then?"                    the objector draws this conclusion:          righteousness  of  God.    The  lie of
    What is the flaw in the reason-          let us do evil that good may come.           man  must  bring  out  the  truth  of
ing of that son?  This, that although            The question is, from what doc-          God.  This is God's purpose.  This
his sin becomes the means of the             trine of Paul does the objector draw         truth,  we  must  never  surrender.
sentence  and,  thus,  of  commend-          this conclusion?  The answer is that         This is the truth of truths.  It is the
ing the righteousness and integrity          he draws this conclusion from the            truth that God is God.
of the judge, that sin does not be-          teaching of Paul that even sin, evil,            Now  what  is  the  inference?
come  meritorious.    That  sin  re-         and all the powers of darkness ex-           The  apostle  says,  "I  speak  as  a
mains  sin.    Therefore,  it  is  to  be    ist, operate, and must redound to            man."  It is the inference of a man.
condemned.                                   God's glory.  He draws this con-             What is the inference of man?  It is
    So  the  apostle  reasons  in  the       clusion from the teaching that all           not the inference of an apostle.  It
context and in the text.  The apostle        the lies of men must bring out the           is not the inference of a Christian.
had  said  that  the  faith  of  God  is     truth of God.  This was the answer           But "I speak as a man, as a  sinful
not affected by the unbelief of the          of  Paul  to  the  objector  who  had        man."
sinner.  He had said:  What if some          said,  "What  if  some  do  not  be-             What does sinful man say?  He
do not believe?  Shall their unbe-           lieve?"  The apostle said that God           says this.  If that which you have
lief make the faith of God without           must become ever increasingly true           been  teaching,  Paul,  is  true,  then
effect?  God forbid.  But their un-          and  man  must  become  ever  in-            this is also true, that my lie bears
belief must show that all men are            creasingly a liar.  This must be the         good  fruit,  that  it  serves  a  good
liars and that God is true.                  outcome.  This will be the outcome.          purpose, that it serves to bring out
    The unbelief of them who have            But the apostle had stated that this         the  truth  of  God.    Therefore,  my
the oracles of God shows that al-            was the purpose of God when He               lie is really a necessary element in
though  man  may  have  the  Word            did not give faith to all.  This was         the  glorification  of  God.    If  I  do
of God he is still a liar.  When they        the question.  Faith is included in          not lie, God will not be glorified.
have the Word of God, this Word              the  promise.    Why  then  did  not         My unrighteousness commends, by
serves to bring out the more, that           God  give  this  faith  to  all?    The      way of comparison, the righteous-
all men  are  liars.   But  God  gives       apostle answers that God did not             ness of God.  All can see that I am
faith to them who are heirs of the           give  faith  to  all  in  order  that  it    unrighteous and that God is righ-
promise.                                     might become evident that God is             teous.    But  my  unrighteousness
    Now    the  objector  states,  "If       true and that every man is a liar.           serves to bring out the righteous-
this  is  true,  if  my  unfaithfulness      This  is  the  particular  teaching  of      ness  of  God.    Hence,  this  is  also
commends the faithfulness of God,            Paul from which the objector draws           true that God cannot judge me as
then  God  is  unrighteous,  if  He          the conclusion, "Let us do evil that         a  sinner.    "Why  yet  am  I  also
brings wrath upon me."  Or, as in            good may come."                              judged as a sinner?"   If the truth
the text, "If my lie must serve to               There is a general principle at          of God abounds more through my
bring out His truth, then I cannot           stake here.  Sin has no purpose, no          lie  unto  His  glory,  God  cannot
be judged as a sinner."  In this case,       end of its own.  The only purpose,           judge me as a sinner.  Do you not
the safest rule is this, "Let us do          the only end, which sin can reach            see, Paul, that I am excused?  Even
evil that good may come out of it."          is the glory of God.  That is, God's         though  I  am  a  liar,  and  unrigh-
This,  says  the  apostle,  is  a  dam-      purpose with sin is that it may be-          teous, I cannot be judged because
nable inference.                             come evident that He is God, that            my lie must redound to the glory
                                             He  is  God  alone,  and  that  He  is       of God.
The Inference                                the only good.  The powers of dark-              There is one more step.  From
    The  objector  draws  a  conclu-         ness must serve this purpose, and            the doctrine that God is sovereign,
sion.  He draws a conclusion from            they must serve this purpose alone.          this also follows:  "Let us do evil
Paul's doctrine.  This is often done.            This is an important principle.          that good may come."  This is the
How  often  do  you  not  hear  this         To deny this truth is to deny the            conclusion of the enemies.  For the
conclusion,  if  you  insist  upon           antithesis.  This denial leads to du-        apostle  says  that  these  objectors
preaching the sovereignty of God:            alism.  You do not believe the an-           said  that  this  is  what  he  taught:
If you insist that even sin and the          tithesis  if  you  do  not  explain  sin     "As we be slanderously reported,
devil are there by the will of God,          and the devil out of God.  Not to            and as some affirm that we say,"
you make God  the author of  sin!            explain  sin  and  the  devil  out  of       declares the apostle.  This is an old
This is not the conclusion of them           God  leads  to  heathen  dualism.            method  of  opposing  the  truth.
who  hold  to  the  sovereignty  of          This,  the  apostle  does  not  teach.       There were some who actually said
God.  This is the conclusion of the          The apostle says  that  sin is there         about the apostle's doctrine that the
enemy.  This, we have in the text.           to glorify God.  The unrighteous-            apostle taught, "Let us do evil that
From  the  doctrine  of  the  apostle,       ness  of  man  must  bring  out  the         good may come."  The apostle did

                                                                                              November 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/75


not teach this.  This was merely a         His lie does not glorify God.              good may come," then their dam-
conclusion  of  the  enemy.    The             If a man throws a child into the       nation is evident.
apostle  calls  it  a  damnable  infer-    water, and that child becomes the              In the second place, the apostle
ence.                                      occasion for another man to show           means that the damnation of those
                                           his  bravery,  and  he  that  had          who  thus  slander  the  gospel  and
Its Absurdity                              thrown  the  child  into  the  water       us is just.  Why should they spread
    For what is the error?  What is        should want the credit, would he           this  slander?    Was  it  a  mistake?
wrong with this conclusion?  In the        not  be  deemed  mad?    Or,  if  the      Was it a matter of intellect?  Not at
first place, they who draw this in-        Jews who crucified Christ should           all.  Their deepest purpose was that
ference do not present the matter          say to God, we are the cause that          they wanted to lie about the living
quite  correctly.    They  say,  "Our      the blood of atonement was shed            God.  When they heard the truth,
unrighteousness  commends  the             and we want the credit, would that         they wanted to show that it could
righteousness of God."  This is not        not be deemed insane?  This is the         be led to an absurdity.  Their pur-
quite  correct.    They  make  just  a     absurdity of the objection of all the      pose was to lead people away from
little mistake.  But this little mis-      wicked.   In  the day of  judgment,        the truth.
take is a serious error.  The objec-       the wicked shall see and acknowl-              People  do  the  same  today.
tors  state:    "God's  glory  must        edge  that  they  have served  noth-       When we teach that God is sover-
abound through our lie."  But this         ing but the glory of God.  Then they       eign, also with respect to sin and
is not exactly the case.  It should        will not say, "This was our work."         the powers of darkness, people say
be put in a slightly different form        But  they  will  say,  "We  were  the      that  we  make  God  the  author  of
in order to be true.  But this differ-     most absurd fools that ever were."         sin.  Is this a mistake?  No, their
ence results in a devilish error.  The     The sinner is absurd.  The devil is        purpose  is  to  oppose  the  truth.
lie of man does not commend the            absurd.  He is foolish.  The absur-        Their damnation is just.
truth,  but  opposes  it.    The           dity  of  the  fool  will  be  acknowl-        Every excuse is gone.  God glo-
unrighteousness  of  man  does  not        edged by the fool himself, when it         rifies Himself.  He does so whether
commend  the  righteousness  of            shall appear that God is true and          you believe or not.  Evil is not to
God,  but  opposes  it.    In  other       that every man is a liar.                  be put to our credit.  There is no
words, man does not glorify God                                                       excuse left.  There is not one who
when he lies.  He does not glorify         Its Damnable Character                     can appear before God.
God  when  he  commits  unrigh-                It is also a  damnable inference.          Our  salvation  is  that  God
teousness.  Man does not intend to         O, we hear these things doctrinally.       brought light out of darkness, not
glorify God when he lies or com-           We  hear  people  say,  "You  teach        we;  that  God  brought  righteous-
mits unrighteousness.  His lie is not      that God willed sin."  This is true.       ness  out  of  unrighteousness,  not
a work that can be put to his credit.      But they add, "If this is true, then       we;  that  God  brought  life  out  of
For it was not his purpose to glo-         this is also true, that God is the au-     death, not we.
rify God.  A lie is always a lie.          thor of sin."  When they say this,             God is true.  He is true when
    Therefore,  the  truth  must  be       we must not withdraw our teach-            He  became  manifest  in  Christ.
put this way.  God glorifies Him-          ing.  But we must say, "Your dam-          Him, He sent into death.  Him, He
self  through  my  unrighteousness.        nation is just."                           raised from the dead.  In Him, He
God glorifies His truth through my             When  the  apostle  says  that         revealed  a  righteousness  with
lie.  My lie does not glorify God.         their damnation is just, he does not       which we can appear before God,
God glorifies Himself.  God always         merely mean to express a general           a  righteousness  which  is  of  God
glorifies  Himself.    He  glorifies       truth.  But he means to say that of        through faith in Christ Jesus.
Himself in the elect.   We are not         those who say these things about               Believe  in  Christ.    Believe  in
the  meritorious glorifiers  of  God.      our doctrine it is already evident         Him.  That is, throw away all that
God glorifies Himself.  Even as He         that their damnation is certain.  It       is of self, something which we must
glorifies Himself in the elect, so He      is evident that they are hopelessly        do everyday.  It is not so easy to
glorifies Himself in the reprobate.        in  sin.    When  the  gospel  is          believe  in  Christ.    Every  day  we
God does it.  God uses man's lie           preached  to  them  and  when  it  is      must throw away all that is of self.
and  unrighteousness  to  His  own         preached to them that they can do          When everything that is of self has
glory.                                     nothing with a view to their salva-        been cast away, we will cast our-
    The inference of the objector is       tion, it is evident that their dam-        selves on Christ.  Casting ourselves
absurd.    God's  glorification  is  a     nation is just, because they turn this     on Christ, we will be clothed with
self-glorification.  It is a glorifying    Word  into  a  word  of  the  devil.       His righteousness, and we will say,
of Himself, in spite of sin and the        When  men  hear  the  gospel  and          "We then being justified by faith,
devil.  How then can the sinner ask,       subvert this gospel into the dam-          have peace with God through Jesus
"Why  am  I  judged  as  a  sinner?"       nable doctrine, "Let us do evil that       Christ our Lord."   u

76/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


  Editorial



                      The Scandal and Silence

                                            States.    Not  racism!    Not  sexism!    of Chicago professor wrote:
The ethical scandal in evan-
          gelical     and     Reformed      Not poverty!  Not the environment!
          churches today is unbiblical      But  divorce!    The  destruction  of        Of course, many families are un-
divorce and the remarriage that al-         marriage and, with it, the destruc-          happy.  But that is irrelevant.  The
most certainly follows.  By "scan-                                                       important  lesson  that  the  family
                                            tion of the home and family!  By
dal," I do not only mean iniquitous                                                      taught  was  the  existence  of  the
                                            the institution of God at creation,          only unbreakable bond, for better
conduct that blatantly violates the         the  family  is  fundamental  to  hu-        or for worse, between human be-
clear command of Holy Scripture.            man life on earth, and marriage is           ings.   The  decomposition of this
But I refer  to behavior that gives         basic to the family (Gen. 1, 2).             bond is surely America's most ur-
occasion  to  the  ungodly  to  mock            Of late, a few officials in gov-         gent social problem.  But nobody
and  reject  the  gospel  and  that         ernment acknowledge the problem.             even tries to do anything about it.
causes  many  to  stumble  into  sin        They  propose  remedies.    One  is          The tide seems to be irresistible.
and perish everlastingly.  It is scan-      that the state frown on "no-fault"           Among  the  many  items  on  the
dal such as Jesus had in mind in                                                         agenda  of  those  promoting
                                            divorce.  Another is that those who
Matthew  18:6:    "But  whoso  shall                                                     America's  moral  regeneration,  I
                                            intend to marry be encouraged to             never find  marriage and  divorce
offend  (Greek:    scandalize)  one  of     opt  for  a  special,  lifelong  "cov-       (p. 119).
these  little  ones  which  believe  in     enant" of marriage (as though ev-
me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a    ery  man  and  woman  who  marry               The silence of the foolish world
millstone  were  hanged  about  his         are not, in fact, bound to a lifelong      may be understandable.  But have
neck, and that he were drowned in           marriage-covenant  by  virtue  of          the churches nothing to say?  Have
the depth of the sea."                      God's institution itself).                 evangelical and Reformed churches
        This warning is especially fit-         For the most part, however, the        nothing  to  say  about  wickedness
ting  regarding  the  scandal  of  di-      social reformers and the vocal ad-         that  dishonors  the  God  who  is
vorce and remarriage, for innumer-          vocates  of  "family  values"  have        faithful in His covenant with His
able children of professing Chris-          nothing to say about divorce and           people and that devastates the lives
tians are the spiritual casualties of       remarriage.  The reason is that the        of professing Christians and their
this sin.                                   evil is widespread and entrenched.         children, not to speak of the disor-
        About this scandal, there is al-    Condemnation of divorce and re-            dering of life in society?
most total silence in the evangeli-         marriage would be unpopular.  It               The churches keep a shrewd si-
cal,  Presbyterian,  and  Reformed          would lose votes for the party and         lence because of the prevalence of
churches.    In  view  of  the  preva-      the  candidate.    Besides,  many  of      divorce  and  remarriage  among
lence and destructive power of the          the social reformers, advocates of         their  own  membership.    The  rate
evil and in view of the importance          "family values," and politicians are       of divorce and remarriage in evan-
of marriage and the family for both         themselves  divorced  and  remar-          gelical churches, we are told, is at
state and church, the silence is ee-        ried.                                      least as high as in the world of the
rie.                                            Unbelieving  teacher  and  edu-        openly ungodly.
        The  world  of  North  America      cational critic, Allan Bloom, called           Leaders in the "mainline," that
maintains similar silence about the         the attention of North America to          is,  apostate,  churches  admit  their
same evil.  Divorce and remarriage          society's strange silence on divorce       craven  silence.    In  an  interview
are rampant.  The consequences for          in his bestseller,  The Closing of the     published  in  the  August  11,  1997
nations and society are disastrous,         American  Mind   (Simon  and               issue of Christianity Today, Roberta
particularly  the  ruin  of  the  chil-     Schuster,  1987).    Lamenting  the        Hestenes  of  the  Presbyterian
dren, surely a nation's most valu-          harmful effects that the divorce of        Church in the USA said:
able  resource.    Divorce  (with  re-      their  parents  have  on  the  bright
marriage squarely in view) is the           young people who attend the Uni-             To  say  in  our  church  today  that
main  social  evil  in  the  United         versity of Chicago, the University           divorce is wrong is extremely dif-

                                                                                           November 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/77


  ficult because we are morally com-      time  renders  the  loud  outcries  of      tianity  that  did  not  abjectly  con-
  promised  since  so  many  are  di-     these same churches against abor-           form to the world, but that coura-
  vorced.  We are experiencing the        tion  hypocritical.   The  murder  of       geously confronted the world with
  psychological  captivity  of  the       unborn babies is the world's prob-          a message that both condemned the
  church--the  feel-good,  therapeu-       lem, not the church's.  The destruc-        world with its ways and created in
  tic culture has become the operat-
  ing theology of the church.             tion  of  multitudes  of  children  of      the midst of the world, in the elect
                                          professing Christians by divorce is         called out of it, a new life of truth,
    William  H.  Willimon  of  the        the church's problem.  About this,          fidelity,  and  chastity.    For  the
United Methodist Church agreed:           the churches are silent.                    Christianity of I Corinthians 6 and
                                              How  different  from  the               7 was the gospel of God, zealous
  A  number  of  Methodist  bishops       prophet of Jehovah.  In a covenant          for the glory of God rather than for
  are  divorced  and  remarried;  so      community in which many, includ-            the attracting and stroking of self-
  when  asked  about  that  issue,  I     ing powerful church leaders, were           indulgent church members.
  have to say, somewhat cynically,        divorcing and remarrying, Malachi                   Today, the churches say noth-
  "When you're trying to attract the      spoke out uncompromisingly.  Je-            ing.
  affluent  upper-middle  class,  it's    hovah  hates  divorce  (2:16).    The               There is a deep, deliberate si-
  tough to take a stand on that par-      one who thus deals treacherously            lence about the ethical scandal.
  ticular issue" (p. 17).                 against  the  wife  of  his  covenant               Not only do the churches say
                                          will be excommunicated  by  Jeho-           nothing  against  the  iniquity,  but
    The  evangelicals,  Reformed,         vah  Himself  from  His  fellowship         they also are quick to speak out in
and  Presbyterians  are  equally  si-     (2:12).  Where divorce and remar-           defense of divorce and remarriage
lent, and for the same reason.  The       riage go on and are tolerated, all          when  a  lonely  voice  makes  itself
periodicals never mention divorce         worship of Jehovah is placed un-            heard condemning the evil.  With
and remarriage.  Books that expose        der divine interdict (2:13).                the rare exception, the books and
and condemn the evil are rare, ex-            How different the silence of the        other writings on divorce and re-
tremely rare.  The preaching studi-       churches  from  Christ  Jesus  Him-         marriage that do appear in evan-
ously avoids it.  It was an open se-      self.    In  an  ecclesiastical  climate    gelical and Reformed circles have
cret at the meeting of the Interna-       that permitted divorce, with a re-          as  one  of  their  chief  purposes,  if
tional Council on Biblical Inerrancy      marriage to follow, for any cause,          not their chief purpose, to justify
in Chicago in 1986 that the attempt       Jesus  upheld  the  divine  will  and       divorce and remarriage against the
to address the evil of divorce and        ordinance, that marriage is a one-          objector.
remarriage with a strong, biblical        flesh bond for life made between                    Officebearers and teachers are
statement was scuttled in the back        the two who marry by the Creator            silent.
rooms of power by the prominent           Himself.    He  prohibited  divorce.                Where are the people?
pastors  whose  large  evangelical        The  one  exception  is  the  fornica-              Now and again, a cry is heard
churches are full of divorced (and        tion  of  one's  mate.    Even  in  this    from the people of God, lamenting
divorcing!) and remarried (and re-        case,  remarriage  is  forbidden.           the misery to which the corruption
marrying!) members.  This was the         Jesus upheld marriage and prohib-           of  marriage  by  the  churches  ex-
meeting of ICBI that was to  apply        ited divorce in the very faces of the       poses the people.  For it must not
inerrancy to life.  So much for ap-       religious leaders who were respon-          be supposed that playing fast and
plication!  So much for inerrancy!        sible for the marital laxity in Israel      loose  with  marriage  is  an  act  of
So much for life!                         (Matt. 19:3-9).                             love that promotes true happiness
    That  which  claims  to  be  the          How different from the apostle          among the saints.  Rather, it inflicts
church of Jesus Christ in the world       of Christ.  In a world as licentious        unspeakable  agony  on  husbands,
cannot defend the basic ordinance         as our own, he boldly proclaimed            wives,  children,  grandchildren,
of God for human life.  It is unable      the gospel of marriage as a bond            parents,  brothers,  sisters,  friends,
to condemn infidelity to the most         that is broken only by death (I Cor.        and the whole congregation.  Nor
basic and sacred of all human rela-       7:39).   He  commanded  Christians          is the agony limited to the time of
tionships.  It cannot find in itself      not to divorce or leave their mates.        the  offense.    It  perpetuates  itself
to  require  of  those  who  profess      He dared to require that a woman            from generation to generation.  Un-
Christianity  that  they  keep  their     who  did  leave  her  husband,  evi-        forgettable was the haunting plea
marriage vows.  It silently tolerates     dently  because  of  his  fornication,      that was voiced once in the Chris-
the same treachery and unfaithful-        must "remain unmarried, or be rec-          tian Reformed Banner :
ness that characterize those who do       onciled  to  her  husband"  (I  Cor.
not know the Lord.                        7:10, 11).                                    What  had  once  been  the  high
    This  scandalous  silence  con-           This was Christianity with steel          point of our family experience for
cerning  the ethical scandal of our       in its backbone.  This was Chris-             the  year  (the  family  Christmas

78/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


  party) we now ritually observe, a          if you can, that those who, in the             In  the  goodness  of  God,  we
  hollow  shell,  a  ghost-like  mock-       name  of  love,  smash  to  bits  the      have the biblical message of mar-
  ery  of  what  once  was  and  what        happinesses of father, mother, sis-        riage, to the great blessing of our
  might still be except for divorce....        ter,  brother,  child,  pastor,  and       churches and families.  This is the
  The divorced member of the fam-            church  are  keeping  the  law  of         message of marriage as a bond be-
  ily and his new wife will be ab-           love!  Convince me that a denomi-
  sent from our party, knowing that          nation which baptizes such actions         tween one man and one woman for
  if they do attend other members            by silence or by a subdued repri-          life in reflection of the unbreakable
  will not.  The divorced wife and           mand  is  acting  out  of  love!           covenant  between  God  and  the
  her  children  will  be  absent  be-       ("Where are We?  Where are We              elect church in Jesus Christ.  Such
  cause  they  feel  the  dissension         Going?"  Banner, Dec. 9, 1977, pp.         is the teaching of our ministers, the
  within  the  family  and  would            18, 19)                                    discipline  of  our  elders,  and  the
  rather be missed than face the an-                                                    lives of our members that we are
  tagonism....    In  somewhat  more       There  was  never  an  answer--not            able to speak out, with the voice of
  than a week I will return to face        by  the  editor  in  that  issue  of  the    the prophet, of Christ, and of the
  five classes of students a day in a      magazine and not by the church in            apostle, against the wickedness of
  Christian school.  Each class con-       her synodical decisions.  It was too         divorce and remarriage.
  tains students who are the sad, liv-     late.  The tide of  divorce and re-
  ing testimonies to the "happiness"                                                        Are we thankful?
                                           marriage  had  already  rolled  over
  which results from divorce and/                                                           Are we determined to hold the
  or remarriages.... I have seen stu-        the church, and the church herself,          message  and  maintain  the  testi-
  dents  face  the  prospects  of  long    under  pressure  from  some  of  the         mony?
  illnesses and even death ... with          people, had breached the dike by                 Members as well as ministers?
  less pain and anxiety than those         her official decisions.                          At all cost?   u
  facing  the  breakup  of  what  had          Only silence.                                                             --DJE
  seemed  a  secure  home.    Oh,  the         What of us, the Protestant Re-
  hurt in their eyes! ... Convince me,       formed Churches?

  Editorially Speaking

                                           the book club members.  They will            tion with the struggle of 1953, and
    About books.                           have to order it.  Even though they          an index of scriptural and creedal
    About forthcoming books pub-           may have the old edition, they will          references.  This is a very valuable
lished by our own Reformed Free            want this new, enlarged edition.             "catechism," not only for all mem-
Publishing Association (RFPA).                 The  other  book  is  new.    The        bers of the PRC but also for those
    Two  books  are  to  appear  be-       title is Ready to Give an Answer:  A         outside  the  PRC  who  desire  to
fore  Christmas  of  this  year,  God      Catechism  of  Reformed  Distinctives.       know exactly what the PRC believe
willing.                                   It contains two, related catechisms          concerning particular grace and an
    One  is  a  reprint  of  Herman        that  give  instruction  concerning          unconditional covenant.
Hoeksema's Believers and Their Seed,       two important doctrinal controver-               Since this is a new publication,
now subtitled,  Children in the Cov-       sies in the history of the Protestant        all book club members will auto-
enant.  This is Hoeksema's defini-         Reformed Churches.  The first main           matically receive it at a healthy dis-
tive, ground-breaking treatment of         part consists of the questions and           count.
the covenant of grace and the place        answers by Herman Hoeksema on                    I encourage our readers to or-
of the children of believers in the        the  controversy  of  1924  over  the        der both of the forthcoming books,
covenant.  The reprint is an attrac-       doctrine of common grace.  These             using the cards that are found in
tive hardcover volume which was            were first published in the old, red         this  issue  of  the  Standard  Bearer.
newly  typeset.    It  runs  a  little     history  of  the  PRC,  now  out-of-         Consider  giving  the  books  as
longer  than  200  pages.    Included      print.  The second part consists of          Christmas  presents,  as  fine  a  gift
in this reprint edition for the first      questions  and  answers  by  Prof.           as one can give.
time is a preface that traces the in-      Herman Hanko on the controversy                  Those who are not members of
teresting  history  of  this  work  by     of 1953 over the doctrine of a con-          the book club are urged to become
"HH"  on  the  covenant  and  that         ditional  covenant.    A  brief  intro-      members.  This gives you the new
analyzes  the  significance  of  the       duction  establishes  the  historical        RFPA publications at a significant
doctrine set forth in the book.  The       and  doctrinal  setting  for  the            discount  and  helps  the  RFPA  to
book also contains a brief biogra-         struggles of 1924 and 1953.  Also            publish--a worthy consideration.
phy of the author.                         included are the complete text of                Yet  one  more  announcement
    Since the book  is a reprint, it       the  "Declaration  of  Principles"           about books.  The RFPA plans to
will  not  automatically  be  sent  to     which the PRC adopted in connec-             publish  Herman  Hoeksema's  96

                                                                                            November 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/79


sermons  on  the  book  of  Romans,          longer appear as meditations in the       the appetite of every reader.  Look
from the Martin Swart collection,            SB.  The sermon in this issue is the      for the publication of the commen-
as a commentary.  Therefore, ser-            last.  No doubt, the sermons that         tary.   u
mons  from  this  series  will  no           we  have  published  have  whetted                                         --DJE


  Letters

                                             tresses me greatly ... to the point         for the unbelief and ungodliness of
The RCA and                                  that I can no longer be "at home"         the other denominations...."  They
"The Formula of Agreement"                   in the RCA.                               would argue that you do not com-
                                                 You  are right,  the  "resisters'"    prehend the definition of "full com-
                                             emphasis has been the UCC stand           munion."    They  would  be  dis-
                                             on the homosexual issue and, as a
As a member of the RCA, I read
         with much interest your edi-                                                  tracted by that and miss the point
torial, "The Sacraments are Still an         result, there has been only marginal      of  the  "accursed(ness)  in  every
Issue"  (Standard  Bearer,   Oct.  1,        discussion on the Lutheran view of        union where there is no regard to
1997).                                       the Lord's Supper.  Your critique         God and to His Word" ... even try-
    Over  the  last  years,  the  Lord       is welcome news for me.                   ing  to  clarify  that  this  is  not   a
has  steadily  drawn  me  to  what  I            Those in the RCA favoring the         union!    This  is  my  only  caution
am  convinced  are  more  biblical           "Formula" would probably react to         when you write on this issue.
viewpoints on several issues than            your assertion that "By this deci-            Thank you again, for your edi-
what my home denomination pro-               sion, the RCA made itself and ev-         torial.
fesses.    Consequently,  the  recent        ery member of it fully responsible                                 John Moerman
approval  of  the  "Formula"  dis-                                                                  Chatham, Ontario Canada



  Address at Annual RFPA Meeting                                                                    Rev. Mitchell Dick



                                        The RFPA and
                              Religious Stew (2)


Manna and the RFPA                           What  shall  we  eat?    What  food       is worked and made conscious so
All  this  leads  us  to  the shall we publish?                                        that  God's  elect  repent  and  turn
         exclusivist, particularist posi-        Manna!  Manna is the food of          from  idols  and  Buddha  and
tion.                                        the gospel.  It is Jesus Christ, the      Mohammed and works righteous-
    We  have  presented  the  reli-          bread from heaven.  It is the only        ness and cling by faith to the liv-
gious  stew,  pluralism,  and  the           wholesome, saving food.                   ing God and the righteousness of
mush, inclusivism.  We have spit                 Exclusivism  promotes  this           Christ only for salvation.
both out.                                    Manna.  It refuses to sell stew, or           Exclusivism is the promotion of
    But  now,  what  do  we  eat?            typeset mush.  It publishes Manna         biblical, historical Christianity.
                                             only, and faith in Jesus Christ only          Religious  pluralism  and  in-
                                             as the only way to God.  It is the        clusivism  have  men's  philosophy
                                             promotion of one religion and the         making their stew and mush and
                                             necessity of preaching that religion.     making  it  palatable  to  the  proud
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protes-         It is the promulgation of the power       masses who will stomach anything
tant  Reformed  Church  in  Standale,        of the gospel through which faith         but one God.  Exclusivism has the
Michigan.

80/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


Word of God, a Manna for sinners              Your doctrinal  position  is par-       it  has  not  happened  already,  be-
who hunger and thirst after a righ-       ticularist: a position, a stance which      fore  the  chickens  of  the  common
teousness from heaven.                    guards against the mush and stew            grace doctrine of 1924 in the CRC
    Old Testament: all Manna!  Not        being served up in the ecclesiasti-         will  come  home  to  roost  in  the
many  gods,  not  many  salvations,       cal restaurants of the land.                mush and then in the stew....
no stew or mush.  Just Manna!  For            Your  watchword  is  Scripture              But  you,  the  RFPA,  are
it testifies of salvation in the seed     alone, Christ alone, faith alone!           exclusivist!  Be that!  Continue to
of  the  woman,  Jesus  Christ.    It         Your position is based on the           be that!
prophesies of the need of this: sin,      truth of an exclusivistic, holy, sov-           Be thankful for the heritage of
great sin!  It prophesies of the need     ereign God, who does not lovingly           the Reformed faith and the legacy
of  a  divine  and  perfectly  human      intend  to  be  pluralistic,  nor           of sovereign and particular grace.
Mediator and satisfaction through         inclusivistic, but in holy hatred in-       Feast on this!   By no means "bite"
His blood.  It prophesies; it typi-       tends to cast into hell those He has        into the stew and open your mouth
fies  ...  Manna!    Old  Testament         reprobated by a sovereign decree            for  the  mush,  and  by  all  means
Scriptures:  these  are  they  which      in the way of their wicked rebel-           warn your readership about poison
testify of Jesus!                         lion!  Who has not provided for the         theology!
    New Testament:  more Manna!           atonement of all men in a univer-               God, one God.  Salvation, par-
Hear the proclamation:                    sal atonement! Who will not accept          ticular in intent and design, in ful-
    *John  3:16:  God,  love,  Christ,    all men on the basis of their own           fillment, and in the way to fulfill-
faith in Him!  One way!                   self-established  righteousness!            ment.
    *John 14:6: The way!                  Whose saving revelation is in the               Print this!
    *I Timothy 2:5: one Mediator!         gospel  only!    Who  is  omnipotent            Specifically, as to your writing:
    *Romans  1:16:    the  gospel  of     and sovereign and who will now,                 I  encourage  you  to  treat  this
which I am not ashamed!                   and  in the  end,  be exalted in the        subject in a future special issue of
    *Acts  4:12:  None  other  name       preeminent  Son  of  His  Love,  our        the  SB:  Pluralism,  religious  stew,
under  heaven  given  among  men          Lord Jesus Christ, the sole Media-          religious mush, manna!
whereby we must be saved!  None           tor, whose is the only name under               Be  bold  and  courageous  and
other name: preached against the          heaven given among men whereby              antithetical: sharp polemical pens
Jews; in rebuke of Roman religions        we must be saved!                           writing all the counsel of God, all
and Greek gods!  None other name!             Unique, your position!                  the  doctrines  of  grace,  including
in  the  face  of  the  pluralism  and        It is the Reformed position!            the offensive ones.
inclusivism, the stew and the mush,           Avowed  Arminians,  such  as                Be biblical pluralists, in the sense
the  atheists,  the  polytheists,  the    Clark Pinnock (editor of the book           that  we  can  be,  recognizing  the
skeptics,  the  philosophers...the          The Case for Arminianism, and him-          church  universal  among  the  na-
whole nine yards of self-righteous        self  a  staunch  leader  of  the           tions and of all ages.  We ought to
religiously wicked men!                   inclusivist  movement),  and  the           be this in several ways:
                                          semi-Pelagian false church of Rome              First,  republish  the  fathers'
       333    333    333                  have a soteriology of the weakness          writings.  By all means!  Herman
                                          of the cross and of grace in the gos-       Hoeksema's writings, for example,
    What  of  this  Manna  and  the       pel,  and  of  the  ability  of  man  to    ought to reprinted again and again,
RFPA?    What  of  exclusivism  and       work a righteousness acceptable to          in this form or the other.  It is good,
the RFPA?                                 God.    Not  surprising  that  they         therefore, that the  Standard Bearer
    What is your calling?  Serve up       would posit other ways than Jesus           is publishing HH's sermons on Ro-
the Manna!  Publish it!  Herald it!       to God!                                     mans!
Here and abroad!                              Many so-called Reformed  have               But then remember, we live to-
    You are in a unique position to       capitulated, in principle, to plural-       day,  we  publish  today,  and  the
do this.  For you are, by the grace       ism.  This they have done by their          Spirit  leads  us  from  yesterday  to
of God, particularists, exclusivists.     cheapening  of  grace  and  opening         today.  So encourage your writers
The  gospel  you  publish  is  a  par-    wide  the  mercies  and  cross  of          to be faithful to the faith of our fa-
ticular, powerful gospel!                 Christ to everyone.  As Pinnock has         thers,  but not stuck on the past.  I
    Your stated  purpose is, accord-      reasoned: "If God really loves the          mean by this that today's writers
ing to Article II of your constitu-       whole world and desires everyone            for  the  RFPA  must  not  be  mere
tion: to witness to the truth of the      to be saved, it follows logically that      mimics,  writing,  perhaps,  canned
Word of God and expressed in the          everyone must have access to sal-           clichs  of  clerics  of  the  past.
three forms of unity and to reveal        vation"  (quoted  in  Carson's  Gag-        Today's writers must give evidence
false  and  deceptive  views  repug-      ging of God, p.289).  This is why, I        of  their  own  study,  and  constant
nant thereto.                             predict, that it will not be long, if       development  in  the  truth,  and  a

                                                                                          November 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/81


concern, always, that the truth be         and a zeal for souls, never seeking         feed His church!  God will bless!
applied  to  today  and  to  today's       to  hoard  this  great  meal,  Jesus        And that is all that matters!
people.  Your writers must show,           Christ, or to imagine that He chose             Witness the blessing already!
by their faithfulness, their thought-      the best when He chose us,  but to              Increased  sales  and  subscrip-
fulness,  their  careful,  exegetical      share it as those who have tasted           tions as never before; people writ-
analysis, their timeliness...that they       and seen that the Lord is good and          ing in thanking God for the feast;
have been, not with men, but with          gracious to us miserable sinners!           faithful  writers;  a  faithful  and
Jesus!                                         Let  the  RFPA's  message  be:          gifted  editor  of  the  SB;  a  tireless
    Thirdly,  recognizing  biblical        Manna!  Manna by grace!  Manna              and  dedicated  staff  of  the  RFPA
pluralism  the  RFPA  will  welcome        by love!                                    and  SB...seeking  ever  to  be  Re-
and even solicit others of the Chris-                                                  formed  and  always  Reforming  as
tian community, if they are bibli-         The Feeding of the                          publishers according to Scripture's
cal particularists with us, to pub-        Seven Thousand                              revelation, both as to content and
lish their good work through us.               Not many will hear this mes-            method, so that what is presented
    All this, this  biblical pluralism,    sage; many will reject this food.           is true, and how it is presented can
my friends, I urge you to consider             Why?  No appetite for it.  No           help to lead people into the truth.
because, in this day of apostasy, we       taste for it.  Translation:  no love            So, RFPA: press on!  Knowing
certainly  need  true   unity,  and        for God in Christ.  Even hate for           the blessing of God!
strength in unity, also in our pub-        Christ.                                         Stand strong in the courage of
lishing ventures, in order that we             This antagonism to Manna was            faith.  Print against the unbeliev-
might be helped to stand strong.           seen long ago.  Cain hated Christ.          ing  media  and  the  national  and
    Another thing, very important:         Lamech hated Christ.  The heathen           ecclesiastical  "print  elite"  and  its
publish in love.  The accusation of        who attacked the nation which de-           religious stew.
people  preaching  "tolerance"  is         clared  God  to  be  with  them  and            Be warned: Israel today is not
that those who are biblical are un-        with no other...they hated Christ.            above  Israel  of  yesterday,  who,
loving.    Let  us  prove the  accusa-     Carnal  Israel  in  the  wilderness         given manna, grew weary of it, and
tions  false!    Let  us  do  this  by     which grew tired of the manna and           developed  a  taste  for  mush,  and
humble demeanor and patient in-            longed  for  Egypt's  fare  tired  of       then stew.
struction.    Let  us  empathize  and      Christ.    Carnal  Israel  which  at-           Be as Peter, who took a stand
not show grand pedantry and con-           tacked  the  prophets  and  forsook         for Jesus and no other.  Feast your-
descension,  but  realistically,  lov-     the Word attacked Christ and for-           selves on the Manna, so that, in the
ingly appreciate the case; that most       sook His revelation.                        publication of it, you will show to
people have been raised on either                      Then  Manna  was  crucified.    all that you have been with Jesus.
mush or stew; and that there, eat-         Then  the  early  New  Testament                Be prayerful!  Call upon God
ing right along with them but for          Church was quickly infiltrated with         to be with you!
the grace God, go we!                      heresy.  Then there was a famine                Be  confident  that  God,  even
    This  love,  the  patience,  the       of the Word.  Then were was a go-           through you, is gathering the rem-
long-suffering, the firmness of love,      ing after saints and popes....  Now           nant  of  His  elect  which  one  day
we must show even to those who             ...  there  is  a  mighty,  devilish  at-     will  feast  at  the  marriage  supper
disagree with us.  As for example,         tempt to  gag  God, and  to silence         of  the  Lamb  in  glory,  nevermore
love was shown in the September            the publishing of the true gospel!          having  to  reject  or  even  to  smell
15, 1997 response of the editor to             So, RFPA, your books may not            the wretched religious stew of dev-
one  who  wrote  disagreeing  with         sell.   Standard Bearer  subscriptions      ils, ever more dining with Jesus.
our  stance  on  particular  grace.        will be nothing compared to that                Thank you for your attention,
There was a  (necessarily) firm re-        of  other  magazines.  People  will         and may God, the one God, in and
buttal  of  error.    But  it  was  not    protest  the  distinctiveness;  some        through  the  only  Savior,  Jesus
mean.  It was instructive.  And it         dissenting voices heard, even, from         Christ, bless and establish all your
offered  a  good  challenge  to  the       our own churches.  You will be la-          work!   u
man  to  go  to  the  Scriptures  him-     beled and libeled as anti-progres-
self, and to write again to prove us       sive,  anti-democratic,  anti-Chris-
wrong if he can.                           tian, and religiously incorrect!  Or
    So  let  us  love.    Publish  with    worse: you may be censored.  You
love.  Adorn truth with love, and          may be hauled off to prison.  You
love with truth.  Let us not throw         may lose your lives!
Manna  at  people,  but  present  it           But  God,  I  believe,  will  bless
humbly, in all its beauty, with love-      you!  For it is means such as the
liness!  Let us have a winsomeness         RFPA that He is pleased to use to

82/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


  In His Fear                                                                                Rev. Arie denHartog



        The Remnant Shall Be Saved

                                                                                      him, God is obligated to save most,
                                           perhaps millions, in comparison to         if not all, of mankind.  God is un-
That God saves only a very the rest of the world, the world of just, they say, He is a cruel mon-
      small remnant of mankind is          unbelief  and  ungodliness,  Chris-        ster if He casts the majority of the
      one of the greatest of all mys-      tians were still but a small fraction      human  race  into  the  eternal  de-
teries of God's work of salvation.         of the population of the world. The        struction  of  hell.    But  those  who
This truth is proven throughout the        Bible  is  very  plain  that  God  will    say such things know not the aw-
history of the world. It contradicts       judge with eternal destruction the         ful power of sin and the perfect jus-
all  human  reason.    It  debases  all    wicked  and  ungodly  who  do  not         tice of God in condemning the sin
human pride.  Man himself would            repent.  Romans 1 teaches that even        of man.  Those who speak this way
say that God must save the major-          the  heathen  to  whom  the  gospel        know little of what it means that
ity of the human race.  Most, after        was never preached will perish ev-         God  is  infinitely  and  absolutely
all,  according  to  the  opinion  of      erlastingly.  They  shall  be  judged      and  perfectly  holy,  and  that  He
man, are good enough that they de-         because, knowing God, they glori-          maintains  His  own  holiness  and
serve  to  be  saved.  Liberal  and        fied Him not as God neither were           glory over against all the wicked-
apostate  Christianity  insists  that      they  thankful.  They  are  in  this       ness  of  man.  God  is  just  in  con-
the  majority  of  mankind  will  in-      without  excuse,  because  God  re-        demning the world. To the objec-
deed be saved. Some even openly            vealed Himself also to these  hea-         tor to these great truths of God the
teach  that in the end God will save       then. "That which may be known             Word of God says, "Who art thou
all men without exception.  Others         of God is manifest in them; for God        that repliest against God?" God is
have modified this opinion some-           hath shewed it unto them. For the          under  no  obligation  to  save  any-
what.  They say that God will save         invisible  things  of  Him  from  the      one.  If God were only just, then
everyone  except  perhaps  the             creation  of  the  world  are  clearly     He would cast all mankind, with-
grossly  wicked  ,  such  as  Adolph       seen,  being  understood  by  the          out even one single exception, into
Hitler,  Charles  Manson,  Pol  Pot,       things that are made, even His eter-       destruction.    If  God  would  have
Jeffrey Dahmer, and such like ter-         nal  power  and  Godhead;  so  that        done  this,  there  could  not  in  the
ribly wicked men.  Some have said          they are without excuse" (Rom. 1:          end have been a single objection to
that God will finally save all men         19 and 20).                                it from wicked man.  "... that ev-
except  those  who  openly  reject             The majority of the human race         ery mouth may be stopped, and all
Christ in their lives.  The heathen        will be eternally lost. This is a fear-    the world may become guilty be-
who "never had a chance to hear            ful reality. Millions and millions of      fore God" (Rom. 3:19).
the  gospel"  will  be  saved.    Even     men throughout the history of the              As  someone  once  said,  the
professing Christians who live an          world will be eternally lost.  From        amazing  thing  is    not  that  God
ungodly life will be saved, as long        man's  point  of  view,  the  reason       saves  relatively    few  in  compari-
as they did not openly reject  Christ      why  so  many  shall  be  lost  is  the    son to the millions of men that will
in their lives. According to this lat-     devastating  fall  of  man  into  sin,     live and die on the earth, but the
ter opinion there are very few men         man's willing disobedience to God          amazing  thing  is  that  God  saves
who actually do this in their lives.       and  his    foolish  and  wicked  alli-    any at all. The only reason why He
    But the Bible teaches otherwise.       ance with the devil. How much did          saves those whom He has chosen
Even during the times when there           Adam and Eve understand of this?           is  because  of  the  wonder  of  His
were many Christians on the earth,         What a horrible event the fall was,        sovereign  grace  and  mercy.  The
                                           and  how  terrible  are  its  conse-       love of God in saving even the rem-
                                           quences  in  the  history  of  the  hu-    nant is so great that man will never
                                           man race.                                  be able to comprehend what is the
Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Prot-         Man strenuously objects to this        breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,
estant Reformed Church in Redlands,        teaching of Scripture. According to        and  height  of  that  love  which
California.

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passes    all  understanding.    The       the inspired apostle Paul writes in        of  the  destruction  of  the  heathen
glory of God's love is not revealed        I Corinthians  that "with  many of         nations,  there are contained beau-
in the multitude of men that God           them  God  was  not  well  pleased:        tiful promises of God's purpose to
saves.  Rather it is revealed in that      for  they  were  overthrown  in  the       save  the  remnant.  This  remnant
God  saves  men  by  His  sovereign        wilderness" (I Cor. 10: 5). This is        shall be brought to Zion and shall
grace and mercy who are in them-           written for our warning example.           by the grace of God be made par-
selves so desperately wicked.  Cen-            In the history of Israel it hap-       takers of the glorious blessings of
trally,  the  greatness  of  the  grace    pened that the nation was divided.         salvation that God will give to Zion
and mercy of God is seen in that           Because of the sin of Solomon, ten         through the Redeemer He will raise
He gave His only begotten Son to           tribes  were  taken  away  from  the       up in her midst.
the  death  of  the  cross,  to  such      house of David. The ten tribes soon            When the promise of God was
depth  of  humiliation,  agony,  and       became  hopelessly  apostate.  But         finally  fulfilled  in  the  fullness  of
sorrow, in order that He might save        God kept His promise to David. He          time,    God  sent  His  Son  into  the
unworthy sinners.                          preserved the tribe of Judah, that         world. He was born the King of the
    Let us trace the truth of the sal-     David  might  always  have  a  light       Jews. He came to His own and His
vation  of  the  remnant  briefly          in Israel. It was only because of the      own  received  Him  not.  The  vast
through the history that is recorded       sovereign  mercy  of  God  and  His        majority  of  the  Jews  rejected  the
in the Scriptures. The first astound-      faithfulness  to  His  covenant  that      Messiah whom God sent to them.
ing example of this is the history         that one tribe was preserved.              The apostle Paul in his preaching-
of the flood. By the time God sent             Before  the  Babylonian  captiv-       journeys experienced great sorrow
the  judgment  of  the  flood  on  the     ity, Isaiah speaks the word of God         concerning  this. He longed for his
earth  (1500  years  after  creation)      concerning  even  Judah.  God              brethren and kinsmen according to
there were by conservative calcu-          loathed the sacrifices and offerings       the flesh to such an  extent that he
lations,  using  the  genealogies  re-     and the feast days of the multitudes       wished himself accursed of  Christ
corded in the Bible,  already more         in  Judah  even  though  they  were        for his brethren's sake.  But  Paul
than  a  million  inhabitants  on  the     zealously  offered.    They  were  an      found his comfort in the truth that
earth.  God  destroyed  the  entire        abomination to Him because of the          God  would  save  the  remnant.  "I
world  with  the  flood.  He  saved        wickedness of Judah  at the time.          say then, hath God cast away His
only  Noah  and  His  family,  eight       And God said, "And the daughter            people? God forbid.  For I am also
souls altogether.                          of Zion is left as a cottage in a vine-    an  Israelite,  of  the  seed  of
    Consider a second astounding           yard, as a lodge in a garden of cu-        Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
example.  God  in  sovereign  grace        cumbers, as a besieged city. Except        God hath not cast away His people
chose His people Israel, one nation        the Lord of hosts had left unto us         which  He  foreknew.  Wot  ye  not
out of all the nations of the earth        a  very  small  remnant,  we  should       what  the  scripture  saith  of  Elias?
at  the  time.    Concerning  Israel,      have  been  as  Sodom,  and  we            how he maketh intercession to God
Moses says : "For the Lord did not         should  have  been  like  unto             against  Israel,  saying,  Lord,  they
set His love upon you, nor choose          Gomorrah" (Is. 1:18).                      have  killed  thy  prophets,  and
you, because ye were more in num-              The theme of the salvation of          digged down thine altars; and I am
ber  than  any  people;  for ye  were      the remnant is very prominent in           left  alone,  and  they  seek  my  life.
the  fewest  of  all  people:  but  be-    the  prophecy  of  Isaiah.  I  learned     But what saith the answer of God
cause the Lord loved you, and be-          this  again through preparing a se-        unto him? I have reserved to my-
cause  He  would  keep  the  oath          ries of sermons on this wonderful          self seven thousand men, who have
which He had sworn unto your fa-           prophecy.  Isaiah prophesied con-          not bowed the knee to the image
thers..." (Deut. 7:7). This Word of        cerning    the  dreadful  judgments        of Baal. Even so then at this present
God was spoken to Israel in con-           that  were  about  to  come  upon          time also there is a remnant accord-
nection  with  the  calling  that  she     Judah and Israel. However, He also         ing to the election of grace" (Rom.
should  be  a  holy  and  peculiar         repeatedly comforts the remnant in         11:1-4).
people  unto  the  Lord,  a  special       Zion  that  the  Lord  will  preserve          Our Lord Jesus referred to this
people above all people that are on        them and restore them again after          truth of the salvation of the rem-
the face of the earth.  Furthermore,       the captivity and finally save them        nant  when He declared concern-
there  is  mention  of  the  absolute      in Christ in the last day. The proph-      ing  those entering into the king-
sovereignty of God's love in choos-        ecy  of  Isaiah  speaks  also  very        dom, "Enter ye in at the strait gate:
ing Israel to be His people.               graphically  and  fearfully  of  the       for wide is the gate, and broad is
    In the wilderness the people of        judgments of the Lord that would           the  way,  that  leadeth  to  destruc-
Israel  rebelled  against  the  Lord,      come on all the nations of the hea-        tion, and many there be which go
they  murmured  and  complained            then around Israel. Yet, in almost         in thereat: Because strait is the gate,
against the Lord. Concerning this          all of those prophecies,  even those       and  narrow  is  the  way,  which

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leadeth  to  life,  and  few  there  be      selves  that  they  alone  are  the          not,  little  flock,  for  it  is  your
that find it" (Matt. 7:13, 14).              people of God in the world.  It is           Father's good pleasure to give you
    In His own ministry Jesus ex-            not because God's people in   them-          the  kingdom"  (Luke  12:32).
perienced this truth of God's work-          selves are better than the ungodly           Though the church is small in the
ing. He preached once to a multi-            world.  There is nothing that dis-           eyes of the world, she is glorious
tude    of  five  thousand    men,  be-      tinguishes us from the majority of           in the sight of God. God does not
sides also women and children. By            the world that shall perish under            despise the smallness of the church.
the time Jesus  finished preaching,          the just wrath of God,  except the           He is pleased to show His infinite
the entire multitude  left Him, as           grace  of  God's  election  and  His         glory in her. He saves her by His
incredible as this may seem.  Only           sovereign love to us in Christ Jesus.        almighty power.  The world's  na-
His disciples were left, and Jesus           The Canons of Dordt say this about           tions  and  organizations  of  this
said  to  them,  "Will  ye  also  go         God's  purpose  of  election.  "That         world will be destroyed. All their
away?" In this situation Jesus de-           some receive the gift of faith from          greatness  and  glory  will  soon  be
clared the sovereign word of God.            God, and others do not receive it            gone.  God  will  cause  His  church
"All that the Father giveth me shall         proceeds  from  God's  eternal  de-          to inherit the everlasting glory of
come to me; and him that cometh              cree, `For known unto God are all            the new heavens and earth.
to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.    His  works  from  the  beginning  of             The modern-day church often
For I came down from heaven, not             the  world,'  Acts  15:18.  `Who             tries so hard to change the fact that
to do mine own will, but the will            worketh all things after the coun-           the  church  is  small.    She  devises
of  him  that  sent  me.  And  this  is      sel of His will,' Ephesians 1:11. Ac-        methods  by  which  she  might  in-
the  Father's  will which  hath  sent        cording  to  which  decree,  he  gra-        crease her numbers.  Rather than
me, that of all which he hath given          ciously  softens  the  hearts  of  the       faithfully  preach  the  gospel,  she
me  I  should  lose  nothing  but            elect..." (Canons I/6).                        adopts methods of the world.  She
should raise it up again at the last             Until the end of the world the           holds rallies and draws masses of
day" (John 6:37-39).                         gospel must be faithfully preached           people by offering entertainment of
    Jesus prophesied that in the last        in all the nations of the world for          every  sort.    She  no  longer  tells
days, in the days shortly before His         the  gathering  of  the  remnant  of         people that they are sinners in need
return, there will be few on earth           God's  people.    A  small  remnant          of the salvation that is found alone
that  will  still  be  faithful  to  Him.    shall be gathered out of every na-           in  Christ  Jesus.    The  apostate
Many will say, "Here is Christ, and          tion  before  the  nations  are  de-         church of our day is throwing out
there is Christ."  Many will depart          stroyed.  The church of God, God's           the  great  truths    of  God's  Word,
from the faith.  Before the return           people  in  their  individual  lives,        for fear that they will offend men
of  Christ,  there  will  be  a  great       must ever be zealous in the preach-          when they are preached.  We must
apostasy in the church world. Paul           ing of the gospel.  Their desires and        do all in our power to avoid turn-
speaks  of  this  also  in  II               fervent  prayers  are  for  the  salva-      ing men off to religion, even if it
Thessalonians 2. This will be one            tion  of  the  remnant  of  God's            means compromising the truth of
of the great signs of the days very          people.  The church joys and glo-            God's Word and denying the glory
shortly  before  the  return  of  the        ries  in  God's  wonderful  grace  in        of God.   Holiness and serious obe-
Lord.  There will not be mass con-           saving His church, while in justice          dience to the law of God are for-
versions  to  Christ  in  which  the         judging and destroying the wicked            gotten.  The term "Christian" has
whole world will turn to the Lord,           world.  And indeed God will save             lost all of its meaning because vir-
as some imagine.  Rather there will          the remnant of His people. Not one           tually everyone imagines himself to
be great departure from the faith.           of  them  shall  be  lost.  That  is  the    be "Christian" no  matter how he
In the last days many shall be de-           comfort of the Word of God for the           lives. The so-called church is filled
ceived,  so much so that the ques-           church of all ages.                          with  more  and  more  ungodly
tion shall be asked, "Will faith yet             The  truth  that  God  saves  the        people, and consequently she is be-
be found on the earth?" We believe           remnant will give God's people the           coming more and more corrupt. It
that we are presently living in these        proper biblical perspective on the           can hardly be distinguished from
last days of great apostasy.                 position of the church in the world.         the  ungodly  world  because  it
    What is the reaction of God's            The  church  in  the  world  will  al-       agrees with  the world's evil phi-
people to the truth that God saves           most  always  be  small.    She  will        losophy and lives the world's cor-
only  the  remnant?  Their  reaction         never be made up of the majority             rupt and immoral life-style.
must first of all be that of fear and        of  mankind.    She  is  despised  be-           This  will  continue  until  this
trembling  and  great  amazement             cause  of  her  smallness.    God's          apostate  church  appears  as  the
and deep humility. Certainly this            people must not be ashamed of be-            great whore mentioned in the book
truth does not give  God's people            longing  to  a  small  church.    Con-       of Revelation.  The apostate church
reason  to  boast  and  pride  them-         cerning this truth Jesus says: "Fear         preaches  a "feel good about your-

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self" religion. She promises carnal           something it cannot be wrong. This          ful  to  the  Word  of  God  even
things  to  those  who  will  join  the       reasoning sounds so good but it is          though  this  offends  carnal  mem-
church:  health, wealth, and pros-            so  contrary  to  the  Scriptures.    In    bers of the church and often causes
perity.  By all means she will in-            fact, when we examine the Scrip-            the church to lose members.  We
crease her numbers, in order that             tures, we find that, repeatedly, the        must be zealous and uncompromis-
she  might  have  power  and  glory           majority were wrong, in spite of all        ing in our love for the truth of God.
in the world and boast  before men.           their pretense of glory and great-          We  must  stand  together  with  all
Many are deceived by the large fol-           ness.  One  thing  for  sure,    when       those who love this truth of Christ
lowings of the great movements  of            tested by the truth of God's Word,          Jesus  in sincerity. But we must also
our day, as though the very large-            many  of  these  mass  movements            be ready to separate from the mul-
ness  and  sensationalism  of  these          are  not  the  true  church  of  Jesus      titudes who are apostate, and we
movements prove that they are of              Christ,  no matter what they may            must not be deceived by outward
God. Few there are in the world of            claim.                                      sensationalism and large following.
Christendom who  examine  what                    As the end approaches, it be-               Though  the  church  in  any
great movements of our day really             comes more  and  more urgent  for           given time and nation is but a small
teach  and  what  it  means  to  be           the Christian that he be able to dis-       remnant,  she  will  still  appear  fi-
members of these mega-organiza-               tinguish the true church of Christ          nally in glory as a host that no man
tions.  Anyone who criticizes these           from the apostate church. In most           can number, gathered from the be-
movements  is  immediately  con-              instances this true church will be          ginning to the end of the world and
demned for being judgmental and               small. But we must not be ashamed           out of all the nations of the world.
unloving  and  many  other  things.           of being a member of her. The call-         May  the  Lord  help  us  to  remain
If  so  many  people  are  following          ing of the Lord is to remain faith-         faithful to Him.    u


  Guest Article                                                                                      Rev. Doug Kuiper


                  Language and Salvation

                                                  He  did  so,  first,  in  sending       God, abounding in  goodness  and
                                              Christ, the Word of God (John 1:1).         truth, forgiving elect sinners on the
                                              The fundamental idea of this pro-
Having considered the effect
         of the fall on language, we                                                      basis of Christ's death, and justly
         must now examine the re-             found concept is that Christ is the         punishing those who do not repent
lationship  between  language  and            expression of God's counsel.  Cen-          (Ex.  34:6).    In  His  person  and  in
salvation.  Two distinct aspects of           tral to God's counsel is the decree         His  work,  Jesus  Christ  revealed
this  relationship  must  be  noted:          to glorify Himself in all His works.        these  attributes  of  God--thus  re-
first, God uses language to save us,          He determined also that the chief           vealing the glory of God Himself!
and second, we must use language              way to  realize this glory was the          Therefore the apostle John says, in
to show Him our gratitude for that            salvation of His people, on the ba-         speaking of the Word: "and we be-
salvation.                                    sis of the atoning death of His only        held his glory, the glory as of the
                  *****                       begotten Son on the cross.  Just as         only begotten of the Father, full of
    That  God  uses  language  has            we  reveal  our  thoughts  to  others       grace and truth" (John 1:14).
been demonstrated in an earlier ar-           through  words,  so  God  also  re-             God uses language to save us,
ticle (Standard Bearer, August 1997).         vealed  His  thoughts--His  eternal          secondly,  in  giving  us  the  Scrip-
How does He use language for our              counsel--to His people through the           tures, His written Word.  Scripture
salvation?                                    Word, that is, Christ.                      is the fuller and more complete rev-
                                                  In  addition  to  revealing  the        elation of the triune God in Christ.
                                              counsel  of  God,  Jesus  Christ,  the      It is "profitable for doctrine, for re-
Rev.  Kuiper  is  pastor  of  the  Protes-    Word, revealed Jehovah God Him-             proof, for correction, for instruction
tant Reformed Church of Byron Cen-            self.    Jehovah  God  is  a  God  of       in righteousness" (II Tim. 3:16).  In
ter, Michigan.                                mercy  and  grace,  a  longsuffering        brief,  this  means  that  Scripture

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teaches us all that is necessary to          holiness  of  God.    Although  God        from false witness, slander, back-
know in order to enjoy our salva-            and Satan use language to accom-           biting,  and  rash  judgment,  and
tion and to live a godly life.  God          plish  their  respective  purposes,        must  defend  and  promote  the
uses language--written words--to               God uses it righteously and holily,        honor  and  good  character  of  our
teach us these things.                       while  Satan  uses  it  wickedly.    In    neighbor.
        Third,  God  uses  language  to      our use of language, therefore, we             In  addition,  we  show  love  to
save us by means of the preaching            reveal  ourselves  either  to  be  like    fellow saints by fellowshiping with
of the Word.  The preaching of the           God, or to be like Satan.                  them.  This requires us to use lan-
Word is the speech of Christ Him-                               *****                   guage.  With our speech we build
self, according to the proper trans-             It  is  the  calling  of  redeemed     up the brother or sister in the faith;
lation of Romans 10:14 ("how shall           saints  to  use  language  in  a  way      we comfort the fellow saint who is
they believe in him whom [rather             which shows gratitude to God for           grieving  or  ill;  we  encourage  the
than  `of  whom']  they  have  not           salvation.  But can we do this?  We        brother  or  sister  who  is  discour-
heard?").    Christ  speaks  through         saw in the last article that, due to       aged; we rebuke the one who must
His Spirit, whom He bestows upon             the fall, and apart from grace, we         be admonished.  Such is the proper
men called to the work of preach-            cannot  use  language  to  convey          use of our tongue in the commun-
ing.  This speech is "the power of           truth,  in  righteousness  and  holi-      ion of saints.
God  unto  salvation  to  every  one         ness, as God does.  By nature we               Third, being sanctified, we can
that believeth" (Rom. 1:16).  God's          can  use  language  only  as  Satan        use our tongues to show love for
speech, then, not only tells us  that        does, to lie and to show our hatred        God.    Particularly  we  do  this  by
we are  saved, but  actually works           of God and the neighbor.                   worshiping Him, whether publicly
that salvation in us; He works faith             The  saving,  atoning,  sanctify-      or  privately,  corporately  or  indi-
in His people through the preach-            ing work of Christ, however, makes         vidually.  This is why singing and
ing.                                         it possible for the child of God once      prayer are serious matters: we are
        God's  use  of  language,  espe-     more  to  use  language  properly.         coming  into  God's  presence,  to
cially  in  Scripture  and  in  the          Christ took away the guilt for all         speak to Him!  Using our tongue
preaching, effectually works in us           our sins, including those of lying         to show love for God also means
the consciousness of our salvation.          and speaking wickedly.  By restor-         that  we  do  not  take  His name  in
His  language  can  work  this  con-         ing to us the image of God, He en-         vain,  but  always  use  it  with  fear
sciousness in us because the con-            ables us to know and to speak the          and reverence.
tent of His language is  truth.  We          truth again.  We can, and must, use            What has been described is the
know,  of  course,  that  God  could         language in the service of God!            proper use of the tongue both an-
never  speak  anything  other  than              Let us examine some specifics          tithetically and covenantally.  We
truth; He cannot lie!  His Word is           in that regard.                            must use our tongues to fight sin
reliable  and  trustworthy.    So  we            First, being sanctified, we can        and  to  show  ourselves  separate
can believe it, unto salvation.              speak the truth.  This is our call-        from the ungodly, as well as to live
        Here  we  can  notice  the  simi-    ing, in obedience to the ninth com-        righteously and to show ourselves
larity  and  the  difference  between        mandment.  Are we doing this?              to be one with God and His people.
how God saves us, and how Satan                  Speaking  the  truth  involves         This is the practical importance of
attempts to prevent God from sav-            more  than  simply  being  sure  we        God's gift of language.  Is that how
ing us.  The similarity is that both         never  lie.    We  must  actively  pro-    you speak?  The child of God must
God and Satan use language to ac-            mote the truth, by speaking it.  In        show, also (especially!) by his lan-
complish their purpose.  Through             our homes to our children, in the          guage, that he is a Christian, a par-
language, Satan brought the whole            factory or office to fellow workers,       taker  of  Christ's  anointing,  a
human race into bondage.  By the             in the church to fellow saints, we         prophet, priest, and king of God.
same  means  of  language,  God              must  tell  what  God  has  done  for                        *****
saves us from that bondage!  The             His people.  Speaking the truth re-            Salvation is experienced in this
difference is that Satan spoke the           quires that we confess Jesus Christ,       life, but perfected in the next.  Ac-
lie, while God speaks truth.  It is          crucified and risen, to be our Lord        cordingly, while the child of God
the truth which makes us free (John          and Savior.  In this way we show           can begin in this life to glorify God
8:32).    This  is  freedom  from  the       gratitude to God for our salvation.        through his speech, he cannot do
guilt  of  sin,  and  the  freedom  of           Second,  being  sanctified,  we        so perfectly until he is in heaven.
knowing God.  Through the truth,             can use our tongues to show love           We close this article and series of
God draws us into covenant fellow-           for the neighbor.  The Heidelberg          articles,  therefore,  by  considering
ship with Himself.                           Catechism's  explanation  of  the          what will be true of our use of lan-
        This  similarity  and  difference    ninth  commandment  teaches  us            guage in heaven.
remind us of the righteousness and           how  to  do  this:  we  must  abstain          We must note, first, that those

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who love to speak lies on earth will        mains in him.  When he is taken to           call upon the name of the LORD, to
not be in heaven.  The apostle John         heaven, that old man will be com-            serve him with one consent" (Zech.
says that all liars "shall have their       pletely destroyed!  We will speak            3:9).  With this language--the lan-
part in the lake which burneth with         only the truth!  God teaches this in         guage of unadulterated truth--we
fire  and  brimstone:  which  is  the       Zechariah 3:13: "The remnant of Is-          will show perfect love for God by
second death" (Rev. 21:8).  He says         rael shall not do iniquity, nor speak        calling  upon  His  name  and  serv-
also  that  those  who  do  not  do         lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue       ing Him.  This language will mani-
God's commandments, and specifi-            be  found  in  their  mouth."                fest the unity of the whole church,
cally  "whosoever  loveth  and              Zechariah  is  speaking  of  the  day        in that all saints will join together
maketh  a  lie,"  will  not  enter  the     of the Lord, the day of salvation.           as one body in calling upon God's
gates  of  the  new  Jerusalem  (Rev.       Because  that  day  has  come  in            name.  In heaven, we will use lan-
22:15).    In  the  day  of  judgment,      Christ, what Zechariah says about            guage to manifest the covenant re-
God  will  justly  punish  these            Israel is true of the citizens of the        lationship  which  God  has  estab-
people!  It is true that John has not       kingdom  of  God  already  now,  in          lished with us!  So the proper, Re-
described those who love the truth          principle.  But this prophecy will           formed use of language will con-
by God's grace, but has described           be finally and completely fulfilled          tinue in heaven.
those who hate the truth and im-            in the new heavens and new earth.                   The reason we will speak the
penitently persist in speaking the          The knowledge of this must kindle            truth is because God will give us
lie.  Nevertheless, we must exam-           in the heart of the child of God a           the truth to speak.  He will "turn
ine ourselves: do we love to speak          fervent  desire  for  the  perfection        to  the  people  a  pure  language."
the lie?  Those will enter the gates        which is promised us.                        Earlier  in  this  series  we  showed
of  the  new  Jerusalem  who  loved              Third, our use of language in           that earthly language is a gift from
the truth in this life.                     heaven  will  show  perfect  unity           God, making it possible for us to
    Second,  those  who  loved  the         with fellow saints, and perfect love         know  and  speak  the  truth.    Also
truth in this life will speak it  per-      for God.  Speaking again of the day          that pure language in heaven will
fectly in heaven.  The child of God         when God judges His enemies and              be God's gift to His people.
cannot speak the truth perfectly on         saves His people, Zechariah says:                   Such is a Reformed view of lan-
earth, while the old man of sin re-         "For then will I turn to the people          guage.   u
                                            a pure language, that they may all


  Go Ye Into All the World                                                                Mrs. Jeanette Kortering


                     Our Work in Myanmar

Introduction
Part of the mandate our churches gave to Rev. One thing that struck us is that anyone who wishes to
      Kortering  is  that  he  is  to  assist  the  Evangelical    serve the Lord in foreign mission work must "first count
      Reformed Churches of Singapore (ERCS) with their             the cost" (Luke 14:25-33).  It is costly to be a missionary!
mission work.  For some time now the ERCS have been                One must leave the luxury of life in the States or Singapore.
working among the United Reformed Churches in Myanmar              He  must  leave  his  children,  grandchildren,  and  friends.
(formerly Burma).  The ERCS sent Rev. Kortering to con-            And he must live among the poor in a culture which is
duct a conference in Myanmar.  This conference met from            very different from everything he has known.  Yet it is a
January 5 through January 19 in 1996.  What follows is a           work in which one is blessed by the Lord in so many won-
diary of that trip to Myanmar which Mrs. Kortering wrote           derful ways.
for her children back in the States.  When my wife and I               We present the diary pretty much as Mrs. Kortering
were in Singapore earlier this year, Mrs. Kortering let us         originally wrote it. We are sure that you will find it to be a
read the diary.  Our reaction was that, in the interest of         moving account of mission work as seen through the eyes
promoting missions among our people, it ought to be pub-           of the missionary's wife.
lished in the Standard Bearer.                                                                                Prof. R.D. Decker


88/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


          January 5-19, 1996                thing you buy.  More about that as            able cost.  Friday night we ate at
                                            we go along.                                  the hotel with the girls.  Each night
    After  experiencing  two  most              The  taxi  bus  is  a  covered            we spent some time together, talk-
wonderful  weeks  in  Myanmar,  I           pickup truck with open sides and              ing  over  the  events  of  the  day,
hope  I  will  be  able  to  convey  in     just a simple seat along each side.           sharing  insights,  making  plans,
this letter how it has truly enriched       You  would  be  utterly  amazed  at           reading the Bible, and praying.
our lives.  We really count it a great      how  many  people  can  fit  in  the
privilege  to  be  used  by  the  Lord      back  of  these  trucks.    It's  almost      Saturday, January 6
for the preaching of the Reformed           unbelievable!    These  people  are               Shortly  after  7  A.M.  we  heard
faith.                                      very small--short and thin.  They              quite  a  bit  of  noise  outside,  like
                                            can have eight sitting on each side,          children having recitations; so we
Friday, January 5                           and then they stand up in the cen-            thought  there  must  be  a  school
    We  left  Changi  Airport  on           ter, hanging on to a bar across the           nearby.  After breakfast, Fiona, Leh
SilkAir along with two ladies from          top.  And then, in addition to that,          Wah,  and  I  went  for  a  walk  and
FERC (Fiona Tye and See Leh Wah)            there are some riders hanging on              we  came  across  the  school.    We
and Fung Dun, a Myanmar citizen             to the back as well.  There's a little        went  onto  the  campus  to  look
returning  home  after  studying  in        step at the back for getting in, and          around,  and  a  man  came  up  and
Singapore.    The  flight  went  well,      one  time  I  actually  counted  10           asked if he could help us.  We told
very short compared with our trav-          people hanging on the back.  They             him we were staying at the hotel
els  to  the  US--only  three  hours.        will have only one foot on the step,          and that we had heard all the reci-
Myanmar  is  1  hours  behind              and then they get a hand on some-             tations  and  were  a  little  curious.
Singapore,  so  we  were  closer  to        where and off they go. It looks ter-          He was the English teacher, and he
you, timewise.  Our very first im-          ribly dangerous, but I guess they             took the time to show us around.
pression upon seeing the Yangon             are just so used to it.                       Nothing like the schools we know.
Airport was that it was better than             The  hotel  van  was  at the  air-        Everything  was  gloomy--bare
we  were  expecting.    There  were         port to pick us up.  We first greeted         wooden walls, poorly lit, very old
about  50  people  at  the  airport  to     all the people and took some pic-             desks.  (The Saturday classes were
welcome us.  The delegates for the          tures, and then the people all re-            for  remedial  teaching.    Regular
conference had already arrived, so          turned to the village and we went             school sessions are Monday - Fri-
they  came  down  in  a  taxi  bus.         to the hotel.  The hotel was very             day.)  We couldn't believe the li-
Only about 12 were in the  airport          nice--not fancy, but certainly very            brary.  The books were stacked in
itself,  the  rest  waited  outside  the    adequate for our needs.  It was a             piles without the spines showing,
gate because it cost five kyats (pro-       small hotel, only 11 rooms, so we             so it didn't appear very useful.  He
nounce it chets) to enter.                  became very well acquainted with              said  the  school  was  in  need  of
    Myanmar money, incidentally,            the staff.  They treated us like ce-          books and that he would appreci-
is all paper.  Years ago they also          lebrities--always opening the door             ate  it  if  we  could  send  some.    It
had coins, but those aren't worth           for us and bowing.  When we came              would help the children learn their
much anymore.  One kyat is equal            home, they would dash out to the              English if they could read English
to approximately one US cent. Any           truck to open that door too.  When            books.  I'm going to have a prob-
foreigner arriving in Myanmar has           we came to the dining room, they              lem describing everything, because
to exchange 300 US dollars, none            would place the napkin on our lap.            you  will  picture  in  your  mind
of which is refundable if he doesn't        It  got  to  be  a  bit  much.    I  think    school  grounds  and  facilities  the
spend it all during his stay there.         they  gave  Dad  and  me  the  most           way you are used to having them,
You  give  them  the  US  cash  and         convenient room because we were               and  this  is  completely  different.
they  give  you  30  FEC's  (Foreign        staying  two  weeks.    We  had  hot          Everything is very old.  The school
Exchange  Currency)  in  $10  de-           showers,  electricity,  even  air-con-        grounds  are  dirt,  and  they  are
nominations, which you exchange             ditioning.  Breakfast was provided            rough.  The canteen is just a bunch
for kyats as you need them.  You            in the cost.  We had to pay $30US             of old rickety tables.
can imagine how much paper you              per person per night (good way to                 This proved to be an interest-
get  when  you  exchange  about             use up the leftover FEC's).  They             ing  contact  though,  because  the
$30.00--that's 3000 kyats, and they          really treated us super, and it was           teacher later introduced us to his
come in denominations of 1, 2, 5,           almost  sad  leaving  there.    When          cousin's wife, who is a Christian.
10, 20, 45, 50, 100, 200, 500 kyats.        later  on  we  saw  how  the  people          The teacher was about 50 years old,
The funny part is that they are gone        live in the villages, it was almost           unmarried,  and  a  Buddhist.    He
so  quickly  because,  even  though         embarrassing how good we had it.              told us that a teacher's beginning
things are not expensive, you have          We could also take our dinner at              salary is 950 kyats per month, and
to fork out quite a few for every-          the hotel if necessary, at a reason-          the maximum is around 1,350.

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   ... Into all
   the world


                                            Rev. Kortering conducts worship service (Galilee Church)





                                                              Public transportation, Myanmar style





          Worship in Galilee Church





                                                                          The dining hall





              Enjoying a tangerine-treat
                                                           Grace United Reformed Church of Myanmar

90/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


    Elder Siew Chee Seng arrived             pans).  The whole family, and any-          ing  children  walked  over.    The
on Saturday morning.  In the after-          one else who needs a place to stay,         adults were just as eager to get a
noon we all went to Grace Church             lives upstairs.  Rooms are made by          piece as the children were.  There
for the registration of the delegates.       hanging pieces of fabric on clothes-        were many times when we thought
It  was  quite  a  procedure,  mostly        lines.                                      a video would be fun--but in the
because  of  the  language  barrier.                                                     eyes of the people simply having a
We  had  made  registration  forms           Sunday, January 7                           camera was quite a thing already.
here and also took along name tags.                 In the morning we went to Ga-            We walked over to the pastor's
A few people, who knew both En-              lilee  Church,  which  is  out  in  the     house for our noon meal.  They had
glish  and  Burmese  or  Chin,  were         village,  over  many  bumpy  roads.         it set up outside with a canvas over
able  to  help  us.    Elder  Siew  was      There were several vehicles belong-         the top for shade.  I certainly would
our photographer.  We first num-             ing to friends of Fung Dun which            not want to criticize, because I'm
bered  the  name  tags  so  that  the        were  available  during  our  stay          sure  they  gave  us their  best,  and
number  would  show  on  the  pic-           there.    One  was  a  car  driven  by      probably  even  extended  them-
ture,  and  then  we  numbered  the          Stephen, who is a member of the             selves because we were there, but
registration  forms,  so  that  we           Baptist  Church.    And  then  there        that was one time when we won-
would  know  which  person  went             was a truck owned by a friend and           dered  if  we  would  get  sick  from
with which form.  That's another             driven by the son of another friend.        the food.  We're thankful that the
job  for  this  week,  getting  all  this    Talk  about  having  connections!           Lord kept all of us healthy during
information organized.  Just as all          Sunday  we  used  both  vehicles.           the  entire  time.    The  rice  was
the Chinese looked alike when we             They offered something to eat, but          cooked outside over a fire.  They
first came to Singapore, all the Bur-        we  had  just  had  breakfast  at  the      even  prepared  chicken  for  us.    I
mese looked alike when we came               hotel so we could easily wait until         was glad to spot a piece of white
to Myanmar.  Besides that, all the           after  the  service.    The  church  is     meat I thought I could handle.
names are strange.  So if we're go-          only a small room made of wooden                After  that  we  went  to  Grace
ing  to  get  to  know  these  people,       boards.  It has a bare wooden floor.        Church for a service at 3:30.  They
we  need  pictures  and  names  to-          Nothing is painted.  And it has a           asked  Elder  Siew  to  give  a  mes-
gether, along with other details we          thatch roof.  Everyone sits on the          sage, and this was interpreted by
asked for.  It was fun and a chal-           floor--but they provided chairs for          Fung Dun.  We had dinner at the
lenge,  to  say  the  least.    Anyway,      us.                                         hotel and then good fellowship in
we felt we were prepared, so that                   There must have been about 30        the  evening  with  the  three  who
we  didn't  have  to  take  precious         people  who  came  from  Grace              came along.
conference time on Monday morn-              Church in one very crowded taxi
ing for registering.                         bus.    There  are  quite  a  few  chil-    Monday, January 8
    After  registration  we  took  a         dren at Galilee, and first the Sun-             The conference began at 8  A.M.
short  walk  to  see  the  property          day  School  children  got  up  and         Our transportation every day was
which the Singapore churches have            sang  a  couple  of  songs.    A  little    the truck.  I sat in the back a couple
purchased  for  a  church  building.         boy sang a solo very nicely.  And           of  times,  but  most  of  the  time  I
There  is  a  house  and  a  shack  on       then a Sunday School teacher sang           rated the front seat along with the
the  property.    The  house  is actu-       while  playing  her  guitar.    Their       driver.  Some advantage to being
ally  what  they  are  using  for  the       only accompaniment is guitar, and           the oldest person around!  Lian Te
church now, and the pastor, who              the people just sing so joyfully.  It       was  the  driver.    He  knows  very
is a bachelor, lives in a tiny room          was really a thrill to be there.  Dad       little  English  but  he  is  trying  to
in the back of the church.  While            preached  that  morning  from               learn.  When I tried to talk to him,
we were there, and the crowd was             Nehemiah--building  the  walls  of           he  would  usually  just  shrug  his
larger, the meetings were held at            Jerusalem.  His sermon was inter-           shoulders--but  he  had  the  most
Moses' house.  Moses is the hus-             preted  by  Fung  Dun  in  the  Chin        friendly smile.  The ride took ap-
band  of  Kip  Vel,  who  studies  in        language, and then by another man           proximately  25  minutes,  more  or
Singapore,  and  he  is  one  of  the        in the Burmese language.                    less, depending on whether we had
leaders  in  the  United  Reformed                  I had a bag of candy along, and      to wait to cross the one-lane bridge.
Churches of Myanmar.  He has a               after church, when we were stand-               We  had  taken  50  cheap  ball-
two-story house, rather well built.          ing outside, I started handing it out       point  pens  and  a  ream  of  paper
The main floor is one large room             to the children.  It was so cute.  Be-      along.  It was so amusing to us how
(comparable to a nice-sized living           sides  the  children  of  the  church,      everything  we  offered  was
room) with a small kitchen behind            other children started coming from          snatched  up  so  quickly  because
(kitchen consists of a hot-plate and         all  directions  to  get  a  piece  of      these people are so very, very poor.
a few open shelves for dishes and            candy.  Even some mothers carry-                Pastor Lau was  the instructor

                                                                                             November 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/91


at the last conference on the Five         gry for their rice.                        while these girls were cutting veg-
Points of Calvinism.  Dad thought              In  the  village,  all  the  people    etables,  washing  dishes,  or what-
he would start out with a little re-       and neighbors are friends, so they         ever, they would sing their hearts
view.  It took longer than he had          had arranged to use the next two           out, even trying to harmonize.
planned,  pretty  much  the  whole         houses  by  Moses  for  the  confer-           They wouldn't think of having
morning session, because he had to         ence.    The  house  right  next  door     us  eat  with  them  or  eating  what
do a bit of re-explaining.                 was where the women stayed, and            they eat.  On Monday, Fung Dun,
    Dad's  original  plan  was  to         the next house was for the men and         Moses, Tracy (a girl who lived with
teach three courses during the con-        was also the dining hall.  The men's       her aunt and uncle, a Baptist min-
ference.  Then he decided it would         house is still under construction, so      ister, in the US for eight years and
be better to treat one course first,       no one had to move out.  I don't           who  was  my  private  interpreter),
rather than three different courses        know  how  it  happened  that  the         the driver, and the five of us, went
each day.  The one on the covenant         next-door house was also available.        to a Burmese restaurant for lunch.
was top priority, so he began with         None of these village houses have          It seemed clean enough to us but
that.  It went rather slowly because       furniture.  The dining hall was set        we  wondered  about  a  few  of  the
it all had to have two interpreta-         up in three rows.  The seats were          things which were served.  After-
tions,  and  he  wanted  to  explain       formed  by  setting  down  bricks,         wards we stopped at a stand and
thoroughly and give time for ques-         only one high, and laying a plank          bought large apples and tangerines
tions.    So  it  wasn't  long  and  he    across them.  The tables were made         (100 in all) for all the people at the
changed  his  goal  to  two  courses.      the  same  way  by  putting  two  or       conference.
As it turned out, he covered only          three  bricks  on  top  of  each  other        In the afternoon Dad started on
one course, and in addition to that,       and then three planks for the table        the covenant.  Fung Dun first trans-
he gave a brief introduction to the        effect.  These people sat right next       lated it in Burmese, then in Chin.
Heidelberg Catechism.                      to each other with their knees up          He did a good job, and stuck right
    Because these people are poor,         against  their  bodies.    Now  go         with it all week.   He also had  to
they eat only two meals a day.  The        ahead, see if you can do that and          listen  to  the  questions  and  give
meals  consist  of  rice,  sometimes       manage  to eat!   They had a little        them back to Dad in English.  We
with a little meat or vegetable, and       temporary kitchen set up between           could tell, from the questions, that
sometimes  plain.    Each  morning,        Moses'  house  and  the  next  one.        Dad's teaching was getting trans-
before the conference, they would          They  had  one  working  table  and        lated properly.  Dinner at the ho-
have just a cup of coffee along with       two or three fire pits on which they       tel.  Dad went to our room to pre-
a piece of something--I don't know          could cook large kettles of rice and       pare for the next day, and the rest
what it's called but it's deep-fried       pots of veggies.  After eating, the        of us chatted about our impressions
and in the bread family.  So by the        girls would do the cleanup.  They          and  experiences  and  then  had  a
time the morning session was over          would get down on their haunches           time of prayer together.
at 11 A.M., they were good and hun-        to wash the dishes in a pan on the                        ... to be continued.   u
                                           ground.  What was cute was that

  Apples of Gold

                                                                  I thank Thee, Lord, for fellowship,
                                                                      For hours spent in prayer;
            True Thanks
                                                                  For grace sufficient to the need,
    I thank Thee, Lord, for blessings                                 Whatever need was there.
        Which Thou hast given me;
    For health and strength, for freedom                          I thank Thee, Lord, for loved ones,
        To freely worship Thee.                                       A home and church so dear;
                                                                  And for Thy loving presence
    For food and drink abundant                                       Each day throughout the year.
        For body and for soul;
    I thank Thee for a Savior                                     I thank Thee, Lord, for all things:
        Who cleansed and made me whole.                               For blessings which I see
                                                                  And those that go unnoticed,
                                                                      O Lord, my thanks to Thee.
                                                                                                          Annetta Jansen


92/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


  Decency and Order                                                                            Rev. Ronald Cammenga


              The Administration of the
                                     Lord's Supper

                           "The Lord's Supper shall be administered at least every two or three months."
                                                                                  Church Order, Article 63

                           "The administration of the Lord's Supper shall take place only there where
                      there  is  supervision  of  elders,  according  to  the  ecclesiastical  order,  and  in  a
                      public gathering of the congregation."
                                                                                  Church Order, Article 64




Frequency of Administration                     it  to  nourish  mutual  love,  and
A                                                                                            tom to administer the Lord's Sup-
        rticle 63 of the Church Or-             among themselves give witness to             per  on  the  Christian  holidays:
        der concerns the frequency              this love, and discern its bond in           Christmas,  Easter,  and  Pentecost.
        of the administration of the            the unity of Christ's body  (Insti-          The  original  Article  63  of  the
Lord's  Supper.    It  establishes  a           tutes  IV, xvii. 44).                        Church Order of Dordt encouraged
minimum requirement:  "... at least            Calvin  favored  a  weekly  celebra-            this.
every two or three months."                  tion of the sacrament; however, the
    Nowhere do the Scriptures lay            authorities  in  Geneva  consented                The Lord's Supper shall be admin-
down  a  rule  as  to  how  often  the                                                         istered once every two months, as
                                             only to a monthly celebration.
Lord's  Supper  is  to  be  adminis-                                                           much as possible; and it shall be
                                                  Whether or not the sacrament
tered.  In his  Institutes, Calvin en-                                                         edifying  wherever  the  circum-
                                             is  administered  more  often  than
courages a frequent celebration.                                                               stances of the churches allow that
                                             every  three  months  is  left  to  the           the same be done on Easter, Pen-
                                             discretion of each consistory.  Most              tecost, and Christmas.
    What we have so far said of the
  Sacrament abundantly shows that            of our churches adhere to the mini-
  it was not ordained to be received         mum requirement and administer                  Although this practice of the past
  only  once  a  year--and  that,  too,       the  Lord's  Supper  four  times  a             no longer prevails in our churches,
  perfunctorily, as now is the usual         year.  A few of our congregations               if consistories believe it to be edi-
  custom.  Rather, it was ordained           celebrate  the  Supper  every  two              fying,  the  Lord's  Supper  may
  to  be  frequently  used  among  all       months, or six times a year.                    surely  be  administered  on  these
  Christians in order that they might             What must  be avoided  in ad-              special occasions.
  frequently  return  in  memory  to         ministering  the  sacrament  fre-                    Nowhere does the Church Or-
  Christ's Passion, by such remem-           quently is that it competes with the            der speak of preaching a prepara-
  brance to sustain and strengthen                                                           tory sermon on the Sunday before
  their faith, and urge themselves to        preaching of the Word as the chief
  sing thanksgiving to God and to            means of grace.  This is a real dan-            the  administration  of  the  Lord's
  proclaim his goodness; finally, by         ger in our day, in which there is a             Supper, nor of an applicatory ser-
                                             heavy emphasis placed on liturgy                mon  at  the  service  following  the
                                             and ceremony.  Invariably the out-              administration.  This practice, how-
                                             come  is  that  the  preaching  is  re-         ever,  is  of  long  standing  in  the
                                             duced.  Rite and ritual replace the             Dutch  Reformed  churches  and  is
Rev.  Cammenga  is  pastor  of  South-       sound exposition of the Scriptures.             prescribed  by  the  "Questions  For
west Protestant  Reformed  Church in              In the past it was often the cus-          Church  Visitation."    One  of  the
Grandville, Michigan.                                                                        questions put to the full consistory

                                                                                                  November 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/93


is:  "Is the Lord's Supper celebrated            most edifying. But whenever there        there where there is supervision of
at least four times a year, preceded             is  the  desire  to  eliminate  them,    elders...."
by a preparatory sermon, and fol-                this shall  not take place without           This requirement is in keeping
lowed by an applicatory sermon?"                 the judgment of classis,  together       with the duty of the elders to over-
Some ministers preach preparatory                with that of the authority for the       see the administration of the sac-
                                                 Reformed religion.
"sermons," devoting both services                                                         raments.  The elders must see to it
the Sunday before the administra-                  The  vesper  services  were  a         that the Lord's Supper is properly
tion of the Lord's Supper to prepa-            carry-over from the Roman Catho-           administered and prevent any pos-
ration for the upcoming adminis-               lic practice of evening Masses.  In        sible desecration of the sacrament.
tration. This is to be left to the in-         many  of  the  Dutch  Reformed                 In close connection with the re-
dividual       minister      and        his    churches a brief prayer service was        quirement that the elders oversee
consistory.                                    held  in  the  late  afternoon  at  the    the  sacrament's  administration  is
    In some congregations, at least            close  of  the  work  day.    At  these    the stipulation of Article 64 that the
in  the  past,  a  second  administra-         services a passage of Scripture was        Lord's Supper be administered "...
tion  of  the  sacrament  was  con-            read,  followed  by  a  brief  exposi-     in  a  public  gathering  of  the  con-
ducted  in  the  evening.    This was          tion and prayer.                           gregation."  It is in the public gath-
regarded as a continuation of the                  As  early  as  1574,  decisions        ering of the congregation that the
morning  administration  and  was              were taken by various synods dis-          elders exercise their oversight.  Be-
intended  for  those  who  were  un-           couraging  the  practice  of  vesper       sides, the administration of the sac-
able to attend the morning worship             services.  In churches where they          rament  is  to  be  joined  to  the
service.    Abbreviated  "Forms"               were not in place, they were not to        preaching of the Word, which be-
were  even  adopted  by  Reformed              be  introduced.    Where  they  were       longs to the public worship of the
synods.    For  the  most  part,  this         in place, consistories were encour-        congregation.  That the Lord's Sup-
practice has ceased.  This is as it            aged to discontinue them, without          per is a sacrament of "communion"
should be.  The sacrament is to be             however unnecessarily disrupting           demands its administration in the
administered  in  the  congregation            the  peace  of  the  congregations.        fellowship of the gathered congre-
and  for  the  congregation  as  a             VanDellen and Monsma give three            gation.
whole.  That the sacrament should              reasons  why  the  synods  favored             Expressly  forbidden  by  the
be administered and only a few in              the  discontinuance  of  vesper  ser-      Church Order are private adminis-
the congregation participate is out            vices.                                     trations  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  ei-
of keeping with the purpose of the                                                        ther in homes or institutions.  Past
Lord's Supper.                                   1.In  order  that  the  regular  Sun-    Reformed synods, as for example
    No mention is made in Article                day  services  might  be  attended       the Synod of Middleburg in 1933,
63 of a "thank-offering" in connec-              more diligently;                         ruled against such a practice.  Some
tion with the administration of the              2.In  order  that  family  worship       churches  today  have  abandoned
Lord's Supper.  Calvin encourages                might  be  maintained  more  dili-       this provision of the Church Order
such  thank-offerings  in  his  Insti-           gently;                                  and  under  certain  circumstances
tutes, IV, xviii. 16.  This practice is          3.In  order  that  the  common           permit  private  administrations  of
followed in many of our churches.                prayers  held  on  days  of  fasting     the sacrament.  Our churches con-
Usually  the  thank-offering  is  for            might be used more diligently and        tinue to adhere to the stipulation
                                                 zealously  (The Church Order Com-
benevolence or for some other wor-               mentary, p. 266).                        of Article 64.
thy kingdom cause.                                                                            Although Article 64 can be said
                                                   Although  in  time  the  vesper        to  presuppose  that  it is  in  an  es-
The Original Article 64                        services disappeared, the article in       tablished  church  that  the  Lord's
    The  original  Article  64  of  the        the Church Order was not replaced          Supper  is  administered,  it  is  not
Church Order of Dordt was quite dif-           until  the  Synod  of  Utrecht,  1905.     true that such a restriction is abso-
ferent from our Article 64.  Rather            That  change  was  adopted  by  the        lute.  Our churches have made pro-
than to be concerned with the su-              Christian Reformed Church in its           vision for the dispensing of the sac-
pervision of the sacrament by the              1914 edition of the Church Order           rament on the mission field.
elders, it concerned the vesper or             and subsequently by our Protestant
evening prayer services that were              Reformed Churches.                           If  possible  the  organization  of  a
held in many of the churches.                                                               congregation shall precede the ad-
                                                                                            ministration  of  the  sacraments.
                                               Supervision by the Elders
  Since  the  evening  prayers  are  in                                                     However, if the conditions are not
                                                   Our present Article 64 requires
  many places found to be fruitful,                                                         ripe for the organization of a con-
                                               that  administration  of  the  Lord's
  each  church  following  this  prac-                                                      gregation, such members are to be
  tice shall do what it deems to be            Supper  "...  shall  take  place  only         enrolled  in  an  adjoining  congre-

94/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


  gation,  and  thus  the  sacraments       resentation  of  the  consistory  to     viewed, however, as an exception
  can be administered under the su-         have supervision of the adminis-         to Article 64, but as the implemen-
  pervision of that consistory.  How-       tration (Decision appended to Ar-        tation of the principle of Article 64
  ever, this shall not be without the       ticle 39).                               in a special circumstance, usually
  accompanying  preaching  of  the                                                   on the mission field.   u
  Word, nor without sufficient rep-           This  decision  is  not  to  be


  News From Our Churches                                                                  Mr. Benjamin Wigger


                                          to  have  Candidate  Daniel  Kleyn         Haak exhorted the teachers to call
                                                                                     students  not  to  conform  to  this
Minister Activities                       there  through  November  to  help
R                                                                                    world,  but  to  labor  for  spiritual
    ev. J. Slopsema, pastor of the        relieve their pastor of much of his
                                                                                     things--the meat that endureth.
     First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI,       work load.
                                                                                         We also rejoice in the advance
has  declined  the  call  he  received        Rev.  C.  Haak,  pastor  of  the
                                                                                     of the cause of PR secondary edu-
to become pastor of the South Hol-        Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL, submitted
                                                                                     cation recently seen in Northwest
land, IL PRC.  Following that de-         to hip replacement surgery in Oc-
                                                                                     Iowa.  On September 29 nearly 70
cline, the South Holland PRC made         tober,  after  which  he  will  need  a
                                                                                     men from our Doon and Hull, IA
a new trio, consisting of the Revs.       few weeks for recuperation and re-
                                                                                     and  Edgerton,  MN  congregations
A. denHartog and J. Mahtani, and          habilitation.
                                                                                     became members of the new Mid-
Candidate D. Kleyn.                       Denominational Activities                  west PR Secondary School Society.
    Rev. J. Mahtani, pastor of the                                                   May God continue to prosper them
Trinity PRC in Houston, TX, was           The Fall Meeting of the Eastern as  they  work  towards the  future
scheduled to leave for India on Oc-           Men's and Ladies' League was
                                                                                     goal of having a PR high school in
tober 20 to speak at the S.W.A.M.I.       held on September 23 at the Hope
                                                                                     Northwest Iowa.
(Sindhis  With  A  Mission  Interna-      PRC  in  Walker,  MI.    Rev.  C.
tional) Conference in Pune (central       Terpstra spoke on the topic, "God's
                                                                                     Congregational Activities
part of India).  He had been asked        Word  and  Man's  Revising:    How
to give three messages on the won-        Must we Respond to Inclusive Lan-          On Sunday, October 5, Rev. R.
                                                                                          VanOverloop,  pastor  of  the
der of the resurrection.  After the       guage and Gender Neutrality?"
                                                                                     Georgetown  PRC  in  Hudsonville,
conference, he planned to spend a             The annual RFPA meeting was
                                                                                     MI, celebrated 25 years of faithful
few days in Madras (south India)          also held in late September, at the
                                                                                     ministry.    To  help  celebrate  this
renewing  contacts  made  during          Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI.
                                                                                     special  occasion,  Georgetown's
previous  trips  to  India.    He  was    Rev. M. Dick spoke  on the topic,
                                                                                     congregation  was  invited  to  stay
then planning to make a brief visit       "The RFPA and Religious Stew."
                                                                                     after  the  evening  service  for  re-
to Singapore to preach on Novem-              There  was  a  Fall  Ladies'
                                                                                     freshments.
ber  2  in  the  ERCS  and  also  meet    League Meeting held on October 21
                                                                                         In  conjunction  with  the  PR
with some Sindhi believers there.         in the Doon, IA PRC.  Rev. R. Smit,
                                                                                     Teachers' Convention, the Voices of
He was to return home, the Lord           pastor at Doon, spoke on the sub-
                                                                                     Victory, a men's quartet from our
willing, on November 7.                   ject, "Luther's Rib."
                                                                                     Faith and Byron Center, MI PRCs,
    Rev. M. Joostens, pastor of the       School Activities                          presented  two  concerts  of  sacred
Lynden, WA PRC, recently experi-                                                     music--the  first  in  the  Hull,  IA
enced severe pain in the left side        What a blessing the teachers of PRC on October 1, and the second
of his chest  and  numbness in  his              our children were able to en-
                                                                                     on  October  3  in  Pella,  IA,  spon-
left arm.  Tests revealed that there      joy in early October at their annual
                                                                                     sored by our congregations there.
is some blockage.  This will require      Teachers'  Convention  held  in
                                                                                         Also  in  conjunction  with  the
a period of rest for Rev. Joostens.       Northwest Iowa.  Imagine 95 teach-
                                                                                     Teachers'  Convention,  Rev.  C.
What possible future treatment is         ers, out of a possible 135 PR teach-
                                                                                     Haak presented a public lecture on
required is not known at this time.       ers, from 8 states representing 15
                                                                                     October 2 in the Hull, IA PRC.  He
Lynden's consistory has arranged          different  schools,  and  teaching
                                          nearly 1,600 students!  This year's        spoke  on  the  subject  of  Christian
                                          convention began with a speech by          Education.
                                          Rev.  C.  Haak  entitled,  "Teaching           The  congregation  of  the
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-     our Children to Labor for Meat that        Edgerton,  MN  PRC  met  recently
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-        Endureth,"  from  John  6:37.    Rev.      and  approved  putting  permanent
ville, Michigan.

                                                                                        November 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/95


      The
Standard
 Bearer                                                                                                           PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                  Postage Paid at
     P.O. Box 603                                                                                                 Grandville,
     Grandville, MI  49468-0603                                                                                   Michigan


pads  on  their  pews,  installing  a               held on October 10.  "It was a joy-         fathom God's goodness to us as He
new  sound  system  and  tape  re-                  ous and blessed evening which we            bountifully provides for our little
corder/player,  and  having  some                   were able to share with our sister          flock.  To Him be all the glory."
landscaping  done  around  their                    church in Edmonton.  Our new par-
church and parsonage next spring.                   sonage is now going up across the
Rev.  R.  Miersma,  pastor  of  the                 parking  lot  from  our  church.    It                 Food For Thought
Immanuel  PRC  in  Lacombe,                         should  be  ready  for  occupancy               "Sin is a little word with only
Alberta, CN, writes that dedication                 around December 1.  It is hard to           three letters, but the biggest is I."
for  their  new  church  home  was                                                                                  --A.S. Wood   u


                                                             ANNOUNCEMENTS


      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
      On  September  25,  1997,  our                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                  NOTICE!!
parents and grandparents,                               The consistory and congrega-                Classis East will meet in regu-
        MR. and MRS. JAMES                          tion  of  Kalamazoo  PRC  express           lar session on Wednesday, Janu-
             BLANKESPOOR,                           their deepest sympathy to Mr. and           ary  14,  1998,  at  the  Southwest
celebrated their 55th wedding an-                   Mrs. Doug Bishop and family in the          Protestant  Reformed  Church,
niversary.  We give thanks to our                   death of Doug's father,                     Grandville,  MI.    Material  for  this
heavenly Father for blessing them                               JOHN BISHOP.                    session  must  be  in  the  hands  of
with many years of marriage. We                         May they find comfort in know-          the Stated Clerk by December 15,
thank God for the covenant home                     ing  that  "Precious  in  the  sight  of    1997.
provided by them.  May God con-                     the Lord is the death of his saints"                              Jon J. Huisken
tinue to be their guide and stay in                 (Psalm 116:15).                                                         Stated Clerk
the years ahead.                                                     Rev. Bruinsma, Pres.
      "But  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  is                        Jeffrey Steenholdt, Clerk
from everlasting to everlasting upon
them  that  fear  him,  and  his  righ-
teousness unto children's children"                                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
(Psalm 103:17).                                                                                     The  Council  of  Georgetown
y     Peter and Janice Poortenga                                                                PRC in Hudsonville, MI expresses
y     Todd and Val Terpstra                                                                     its  Christian  sympathy  to  our  fel-
y     Jerry and Judy Fynaardt                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                    low-officebearer,  Elder  Bruce
y     George and Ranae Vroom                            The Council of Grandville PRC           Jabaay, and to his wife, Cheryl, and
y     Steve and Joanne McNary                       express their Christian sympathy to         to their children on the occasion of
y     Deanna Poortenga                              their  fellow-elder,  Mr.  Jack             the death of his father,
        9 great-grandchildren                       VanDyke,  in  the  death  of  his  fa-           MR. RICHARD JABAAY.
                         South Holland, Illinois    ther,                                           May the assurance of our cov-
                                                             MR. JOHN VAN DYKE.                 enant God's eternal Fatherhood be
                                                        May he and his family find com-         a constant source of comfort.  "The
                                                    fort  in  these  words  from  Psalm         Lord will give strength to his people;
         Address Correction                         33:20:    "Our  soul  waiteth  for  the     the Lord will bless his people with
      The E-mail address of Rev. M.                 Lord:    he  is  our  help  and  our        peace" (Psalm 29:11).
Joostens which is in the 1997 Year-                 shield."                                      Rev. Ronald VanOverloop, Pres.
book should be:                                              Rev. A. Spriensma, President                   David Ondersma, Clerk
     102106.70@compuserve.com                                   Cornelius R. Jonker, Clerk


96/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1997


